Marsha Hopwood

Data management for clinical research

This paper discusses a prototype system intended for the personal use of physicians engaged in clinical research. In particular, the prototype is a highly integrated, interactive, minicomputer based data management and analysis system. The facilities offered by the system allow the clinical investigator to store, recall, analyze, and display his research data without resorting to computer programming. Modern data base techniques are available to the physician as aids in organizing, storing, and retrieving his data. The data base concepts are expressed in terms that are familiar to a clinical researcher.

Language constructs for message handling in decentralized programs

The current interest in distributed computer architecture (as found in networks and loosely-coupled multiprocessors) makes it relevant to consider the kinds of programming language constructs necessary to take advantage of the resultant decentralized environment. One approach is to construct decentralized programs as collections of disjoint processes which communicate and exercise control via messages. This paper presents several high order language message handling constructs and describes their use in writing decentralized programs. Particular points addressed are immediate and deferred message interpretation and content-based communication.