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Need for using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to check low quality software application in video games development is discussed.

ABSTRACT Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been used in various business domains as a means of matching products to customer requirements and desires. It has not so far been deployed [...]

The market for digital interactive TV in Europe will be dependent on many interlinked variables. There are fears among the major players that the possible geographic fragmentation of the industry across Europe will be brought about if national companies aim only at their home user-base. In the U.K., BSkyB effectively holds a monopoly in analogue pay-TV. It may well go digital in the near future. Canal Plus in France launched the first fully fledged European digital programme package in April 1996. No partner has the financial muscle or pay-TV expertise to pose a serious threat. The potential of the Dutch market is small. It has proved to be more difficult in Germany to achieve a rapid diffusion of digital TV services than in the U.K., France or the Netherlands. Attempts to forecast the expected value of the interactive TV market have thrown up inconsistencies. A non-quantitative approach based on in-depth interviews was used in order to formulate scenarios. This took into account work done on possible scenarios for the future development of the Internet. Despite the hyperbole, the Internet is very far from reaching a truly mass market. Indeed user growth rates are likely to slow down, though its theoretical potential is obvious. The future success of interactive TV is more problematic. Interactive TV is mostly an amalgam of existing technologies. Broadcasting is and remains essentially one-way. How much the public will be willing to pay is open to question. Interactive TV technology still poses a number of unresolved technical problems. Unlike the Internet, Broadcast TV has been ring fenced within national and linguistic boundaries and is usually a group or family activity. The interviews in fact showed that uncertainty is prevalent; most felt it was best to sit and wait. Some suppliers of set-top boxes feared that their core business was threatened. Almost all emphasized that the national culture and language and access systems separated the market. Two key variables - transmission infrastructure upgrade, powerful head-end technology - are controlled by a very few large organizations. Nonetheless, four possible scenarios can be drawn. The Desert Islands scenario assumes a completely fragmented market. Competing Islands is less pessimistic. The Gradual Integration scenario presupposes a final agreement on a common reception standard, and Rapid Integration assumes a fast uptake after a slow start. Interactive TV does offer a range of possible new consumer applications, though it is difficult to see when retailing will become heavily based on electronic media. Companies, however, cannot afford to have no electronic-media application ready if the retail sector does move. They should at least research the area in readiness for possible developments. Large investments are unlikely until there is unequivocal indication from the major players that the investment will be worthwhile. There is great potential, and a close eye should be kept on developments. The question remains, however, whether interactive TV will provide the main platform for retailing.

A study is conducted on various games software released for popular video-game platforms, to analyze the match between product quality and demands of end users.

Anxiety disorders arise from disruptions among the highly interconnected circuits that normally serve to process the streams of potentially threatening stimuli. The resulting imbalance among these circuits can cause a fundamental misinterpretation of neural sensory information as threatening and can lead to the inappropriate emotional and behavioral responses observed in anxiety disorders. There is considerable preclinical evidence that the GABAergic system, in general, and its α2- and/or α5-subunit-containing GABA(A) receptor subtypes, in particular, are involved in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders. However, the clinical efficacy of GABA-A α2-selective agonists for the treatment of anxiety disorders has not been unequivocally demonstrated. In this review, we present several human pharmacological studies that have been performed with the aim of identifying the pharmacologically active doses/exposure levels of several GABA-A subtype-selective novel compounds with potential anxiolytic effects. The pharmacological selectivity of novel α2-subtype-selective GABA(A) receptor partial agonists has been demonstrated by their distinct effect profiles on the neurophysiological and neuropsychological measurements that reflect the functions of multiple CNS domains compared with those of benzodiazepines, which are nonselective, full GABA(A) agonists. Normalizing the undesired pharmacodynamic side effects against the desired on-target effects on the saccadic peak velocity is a useful approach for presenting the pharmacological features of GABA(A)-ergic modulators. Moreover, combining the anxiogenic symptom provocation paradigm with validated neurophysiological and neuropsychological biomarkers may provide further construct validity for the clinical effects of novel anxiolytic agents. In addition, the observed drug effects on serum prolactin levels support the use of serum prolactin levels as a complementary neuroendocrine biomarker to further validate the pharmacodynamic measurements used during the clinical pharmacological study of novel anxiolytic agents.

AZD6280 is a novel -aminobutyric acid A receptor modulator with higher in vitro efficacy at the 2,3subtypes as compared to the 1and 5subtypes. This study compared the pharmacodynamic effects of single oral dose AZD6280 10 mg and 40 mg on the central nervous system with 2 mg of lorazepam.

This article discusses the use of a French computerized grammar checker as a learning and teaching resource. As is well known, foreign language grammar checkers can give unreliable, even farcical results, but that does not necessarily mean that they cannot be effectively used by foreign language teachers. After some discussion of the nature of foreign language grammar checkers, the article presents the results of a controlled series of experiments in which groups of students were given the task of correcting French texts containing grammatical, lexical, and orthographical errors by using either an on-screen grammar checker or grammar books and dictionaries. The study draws some conclusions about the advantages and pitfalls of using foreign language grammar checkers for teaching and learning.