Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Medical sciences Computer network resources'

The rapid evolution and popularity of the Internet technologies, and the World Wide Web, have resulted in unrestricted worldwide access to medical and health information. This has provided the medical profession with the ability to access up to date research more immediately than by traditional means, and has created the potential for advanced information collation. Also the availability of medical literature, previously difficult to obtain for the general public, is having an effect that is both a benefit and a burden to the medical profession. Whilst benefits exist in the use of the Internet in General Practice for clinical support, communication and education, there are also barriers to its inclusion in daily clinical practice. These include the issues of security, access availability, quality, time, research experience and Internet navigation familiarity. Questions remain as to whether or not the Internet can be used in General Practice efficiently, in order to provide a significant advantage over traditional information dissemination methods. This issue is also relevant for other primary health care providers such as pharmacists. In Australia, there has been a relatively slow adoption of both the technology and the use of the Internet for acquiring clinical and medical information. This thesis investigates the current issues surrounding the use of the Internet in general practice and pharmacy in Western Australia. The underlying assumption that the Internet is a useful tool for such information retrieval is examined in terms of useability and usefulness in clinical practice. Further the attitudes to the use of the Internet technology as an effective medium of information delivery were sought.

Most rural areas of developing countries are faced with problems like shortage of doctors in hospitals, illiteracy and poor power supply. Because of these issues, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is often sees as a useful solution for these areas. Unfortunately, the social environment is often ignored. This leads to inappropriate systems being developed for these areas. The aims of this thesis were firstly, to learn how a communication system can be built for a rural telehealth environment in a developing country, secondly to learn how users can be supported to use such a system.

Given the increases on global ageing population, popularity of social Q&A sites and the level of geriatric health concerns from family caregivers, it raises the uncertainty about the quality of health information on social Q&A sites for family caregivers of elderly. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the quality of geriatric health information on social Questions and Answers (Q&A) sites: Yahoo! Answers from registered nurses’ perspective, to identify the structural patterns of questions and answers vary in quality and to discover the cultural aspects in relation to the findings. A total of 60 question-answers set is retrieved from regional Yahoo! Answers sites, including Australia, Canada, UK & Ireland, US, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. 126 English answers and 112 Chinese answers are examined. Through a mixed method approach, results show that the overall information quality provided in Chinese group is relatively poorer than those of English. About 40% of questioners form both groups are not capable of judging the best answer among choices. In terms of structural patterns, questioners from both language groups are less capable of asking questions with clear focuses. 4 structural patterns, including Chinese and English answers with good and poor quality, are identified. Furthermore, cultural differences are found to have a significant impact on the level of information quality in social Q&A site. Finally, recommendations to corresponding social sectors are made for improving the current information quality of social Q&A sites in future.
published_or_final_version
Library and Information Management
Master
Master of Science in Library and Information Management

The major socio-economic development challenges facing most African countries include economic diversification, poverty, unemployment, diseases and the unsustainable use of natural resources. The challenge of quality healthcare provisioning is compounded by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub Saharan Africa. However, there is a great potential in using electronic healthcare (e-health) as one of the supportive systems within the healthcare sector to address these pressing challenges facing healthcare systems in developing countries, including solving inequalities in healthcare delivery between rural and urban hospitals/clinics. The purpose of this study was to compile a Provincial E-health Framework (PEHF) based on the feedback from electronic healthcare readiness assessments conducted in selected rural and urban hospitals/clinics in the North West Province in South Africa. The e-healthcare readiness assessment was conducted in the light of effective use of ICT in patient healthcare record system, consultation among healthcare professionals, prescription of medication, referral of patients and training of healthcare professionals in ICT usage. The study was divided into two phases which were phases 1 and 2 and a qualitative design supported by a case study approach was used. Data were collected using different techniques to enhance triangulation of data. The techniques included group interviews, qualitative questionnaires, photographs, document analysis and expert opinions. The outcome of the assessment led to the compilation of the PEHF which was based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). SOA was chosen to integrate the hospitals/clinics‟ ICT infrastructure yet allowing each hospital/clinic the autonomy to control its own ICT environment. To assist hospitals/clinics integrate their ICT resources, this research study proposed an Infrastructure Network Architecture which clustered hospitals/clinics to share common ICT infrastructure instead of duplicating these resources. Furthermore, processes of the e-health services (e-patient health IV record system, e-consultation system, e-prescription system, e-referral system and e-training system) were provided to assist in the implementation of the PEHF. Finally, a set of guidelines were provided by the research study to aid the implementation of the PEHF.

Recent surveys on medical service systems show that the cost of patient monitoring has grown significantly. The widespread use of portable digital medical device makes it possible to provide a more comprehensive tracking of patient conditions. However, the development of a full scale, distributed health monitoring system is much delayed due to the lack of efficient wireless communication in a large distributed network. This becomes a challenging research topic which is to find a way to provide accurate and real time patient information to medical experts in a fast, efficient and cost effective fashion. This paper proposes a novel solution on building a system which links patients and doctors together using embedded system technology and wireless sensor network. The content presented in this thesis introduces the design and implement of such a system.

Healthcare information systems share records through common messaging standards and exchange information via universal network communications protocols. This interaction benefits hospitals by lowering administration costs and improving the accuracy of recorded information. This sharing and exchanging of information benefits patients by providing easier access to medical records, enabling point-of-care services, and simplifying retrieval of real-time patient data resulting in better patient care. Bedside medical device data complements the overall healthcare information system by providing a more complete understanding of a patient's health. This dissertation presents a simulation based on a standard network communications protocol for medical devices. This researcher addressed the problem that the use of the IEEE 1073 communications protocol to facilitate communication between legacy medical devices and hospital information systems is not adequately understood. The goal of this research was to further develop the understanding of such a system. The objective of this study was to develop a simulation model based on a reasonable approximation of a hypothetical system to identify the parameters involved and quantify its performance characteristics using real-world inputs. A model was developed using product-form queueing networks to model the steady-state behavior of a medical device communications system. The simulation model consisted of elements representing both physical and logical resources. Only the Physical and Data-Link Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layers were considered. System configurations were limited to those defined by the IEEE 1073 communications protocol that support legacy medical devices. The inputs to the model consisted of real –world information compiled from vendor data specifications including physical communication mediums, microprocessors, medical devices, and representative software implementations. The results of the simulation suggest that a medical device communications network employing an IEEE 1073 communications protocol can support a limited number of legacy medical devices assuming a I -limited round-robin scheduling policy with a store and- forward data coherency strategy. However, under heavily loaded conditions, it is inadequate to deliver data generated from periodic multi -class work-loads in a timely manner. This conclusion demonstrates the need for an efficient medium access protocol schedule specification.

This study examines the challenges, issues and complexities surrounding the construction of information for a South Texas Internet-based, health information gateway. It explores the collaborative and negotiated power dimensions and partnerships that supported this effort and the implications of online technological innovation for women's health choices. The context of the study is the online South Texas Health Information Gateway, a health information and communications-based effort that emerged in response to a stated community need to improve access to local, relevant and time-sensitive health information, resources and support for women and their families.

The World Wide Web has become a significant source of medical information for the public, but there is concern that much of the information is inaccurate, misleading, and unsupported by scientific evidence. This study analyzes the validity of health claims on the World Wide Web for the herbal Opuntia using an evidence-based approach, and supports the observation that individuals must critically assess health information in this relatively new medium of communication. A systematic search by means of nine search engines and online resources of Web sites relating to herbal remedies was conducted and specific sites providing information on the cactus herbal remedy from the genus Opuntia were retrieved. Validity of therapeutic health claims on the Web sites was checked by comparison with reports in the scientific literature subjected to two established quality assessment rating instruments. 184 Web sites from a variety of sources were retrieved and evaluated, and 98 distinct health claims were identified. 53 scientific reports were retrieved to validate claims. 25 involved human subjects, and 28 involved animal or laboratory models. Only 33 (34%) of the claims were addressed in the scientific literature. For 3% of the claims, evidence from the scientific reports was conflicting or contradictory. Of the scientific reports involving human subjects, none met the predefined criteria for high quality as determined by quality assessment rating instruments. Two-thirds of the claims were unsupported by scientific evidence and were based on folklore, or indirect evidence from related sources. Information on herbal remedies such as Opuntia is well represented on the World Wide Web. Health claims on Web sites were numerous and varied widely in subject matter. The determination of the validity of information about claims made for herbals on the Web would help individuals assess their value in medical treatment. However, the Web is conducive to dubious health information and individuals should exercise caution in accepting health claims unsupported by scientific evidence.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Peninsula Technikon, Cape Town, 2005
The overall objective of this study is to identify the importance of culture in the implementation of Information systems and how output influences the success of a system. • The first objective is to assess the organizational culture in each hospital in terms of one of the dimensions of culture on Hofstede's checklist, namely power distance. • The second objective is to determine whether the speed with which a HIS was implemented was a success at the two academic hospitals in the Western Cape using the reduction of the level of backlog (paper based patient registration records) as a measure of implementation progress.

The Chinese Medical Clinic System is designed to help acupuncturists and assistants record and store information. This system can maintain and schedule appointments and view patient diagnoses effectively. The system will be implemented on a desktop PC connected to the internet to facilitate the acupuncturists record of information.

The number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is forecast to grow to over 25 billion by 2030, with the healthcare IoT market projected to grow to 25.9% of IoT devices by 2028 worldwide. However, with new and growing technologies come new types of risks. Current risk assessment and risk management methods haven’t been designed to anticipate or predict these risks. IoT risks relate to openness and lack of standardisation, linking and connectivity between the devices and the lack of skilled support for IoT devices and networks. These factors put medical IoT devices and, by extension, their users at risk from cyber threats. Additionally, the attack surface for the medical IoT has not been fully mapped, nor have the risks been fully assessed. The lack of coverage means increased risk for manufacturers, medical facilities, and potentially, patients. This project evaluates the effectiveness of how new and emerging wireless and connected medical devices can be managed and analysed through a digital forensic framework. An initial analysis of the currently available frameworks showed that they did not address the nuances of implementing a wireless or connected medical device into a healthcare organisation. Digital forensic frameworks that were deemed relevant to wireless medical devices were selected and tested against several currently available wireless medical devices. Four frameworks were tested across four devices each. The outcome was that none of the frameworks was fully able to effectively manage wireless medical devices (at least in terms of the objectives of digital forensics), with each missing elements that would aid an investigator or a hospital organisation in the case of a cyber-related incident. These results led to the synthesis and testing of a framework that addressed the missing elements. The framework emphasises forensic readiness planning and risk management. The synthesised framework was tested against a new device. The results of the test found that the synthesised framework was effective in both the proactive digital forensics approach and reactive approach. The testing found that the framework performed better than the other tested frameworks, containing additional phases and steps that were advantageous in preparing and reacting to incidents involving wireless medical devices.

Low-Power Wide-Area Networks, LPWANs, achieve long communication ranges with a low energy consumption by communicating at low bit rates. Most LPWAN devices are battery powered and are required to operate for an extended period of time, which stresses the requirements for energy efficiency. This thesis investigates the energy consumption of LPWAN devices operating in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical, ISM, band and how use cases affect the consumption. Specifically, LoRa/LoRaWAN and Sigfox are examined. Their key characteristics are described and energy consumption is modelled. The models are verified by comparing the model outputs with measured power consumption of LoRa and Sigfox devices. Through the models, design parameters are investigated with regards to consumption, and product lifetime are estimated. The influence of use cases on energy consumption is explored by measuring the Package Delivery Ratio, PDR, at different ranges using various bit transmission rates.The results showed that the bitrate, data redundancy and protocol overhead were among parameters which could be used to optimise energy efficiency. It was also shown, that the device lifetimes could be significantly increased by increasing the transmission interval and removing message acknowledgements. Realistically, LoRa devices can have a lifetime of more than 10 years and Sigfox 3 years, using a 2800 mWh battery. The use case tests showed that a 100 % PDR should not be expected at any bitrate, but lower bitrates and messaging redundancy increase the likelihood of a successful package delivery. Hence, there is a tradeoff between low energy consumption and range/reliability. Additionally, it was found that a low node to gateway distance and a high gateway density increase the probability of a successful transaction. Thus, the power consumption is tightly coupled to the network configuration.
Low-Power Wide-Area Networks, LPWANs, uppnår långa kommunikationsräckvidder med låg energiförbrukning genom att kommunicera med låga bithastigheter. De flesta enheter är batteridrivna och måste operera över längre tid, vilket ökar kraven för energieffektivitet. Denna avhandling undersöker energiförbrukningen för LPWAN enheter i det industriella, vetenskapliga och medicinska ISM bandet och hur olika användningsfall påverkar förbrukningen. Specifikt undersöks LoRa/LoRaWAN och Sigfox. Deras viktigaste egenskaper beskrivs och deras energiförbrukning modelleras. Modellerna verifieras genom att jämföra resultaten från modellerna med uppmätt effektförbrukning av LoRa och Sigfox-enheter. Genom modellerna undersöks även designparametrar med avseende på strömkonsumtion och produktens livslängd uppskattas. Påverkan användningsfall har på energiförbrukning undersöks genom att mäta Package Delivery Ratio, PDR, vid olika avstånd och bitöverföringshastigheter.Resultaten visade att bitraten, dataredundansen och protokollstorleken var bland parametrar som kunde användas för att optimera energieffektiviteten. Det visades också att enhetens livslängd kunde ökas signifikant genom att öka överföringsintervallet och ta bort meddelandebekräftelser. Realistiskt kan LoRaenheter ha en livslängd på mer än 10 år och Sigfox 3 år, med ett batteri på 2800 mWh. Resultatet av olika test visade att en 100 % PDR inte bör förväntas vid någon bitrate, men lägre bitrater och redundans för meddelanden ökar sannolikheten för en paketleverans. Det finns därför en avvägning mellan låg energiförbrukning och räckvidd och sannolikheten för en lyckad packetleverans. Dessutom konstaterades att en låg nod till gateway-avstånd och en hög gateway-densitet ökar sannolikheten för att transaktioner lyckas. Således är energiförbrukningen tätt kopplad till nätverkskonfigurationen.

Thesis (MNutr (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. Human Nutrition))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
Background: In Africa, internet access and use is plagued by numerous barriers. Whilst South Africa (SA) boasts a better population penetration than the rest of Africa there is a lack of regulation regarding the internet and e-mail use amongst health professionals and their patients. The aim of this study was to assess the use of the internet amongst dietitians and medical doctors (MDs) in clinical practice in SA and draft a policy on such usage amongst health professionals and their patients. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical web-based survey was conducted amongst registered dietitians and MDs. A cover letter including a hyperlink to the self-administered questionnaire was e-mailed to all dietitians and a proportionate, stratified random sample of MDs with contactable e-mail addresses. The questionnaire consisted of open and closed questions, including demographics, influence of the internet on the quality of care of patients, quality control with web resources and aspects of information technology (IT) which were recommended by health professionals to be incorporated as part of undergraduate health science education Results: A total of 176 health professionals participated in the study (106 dietitians and 70 MDs). The mean age of the dietitians was 32.6± (8.0) and the MDs 50.5± (8.9). The majority of the respondents in this study population were White (82%) females (67%). On average, practitioners had been in practice for 9.1(8.0) years. The majority of dietitians (58%) and MDs (68%) had access to the internet at both their practice or workplace and their home. More dietitians (65%) than MDs (41%) were using e-mail or internet. MDs did not use the internet for research purposes, whilst a fifth of dietitians (21%) reported using the internet as a research tool. A greater percentage of the sample [MDs (69%) and dietitians (82%)] reported that, the internet had improved the quality of care of their patients. The dietitians (60%) and MDs (53%) in this study sample were unclear about how to source information and determine the reliability or accuracy of the information obtained from internet resources. Conclusion: Internet is incorporated into the practice of most dietitians and to a lesser extent by MDs. In this study, the need for training amongst health professionals regarding the use of the internet was highlighted. The study reflects that even though health professionals were unsure of the credibility of the internet information resourced, it did not stop the use of the internet in the practice. This is an area of concern, since it could potentially result in the distribution of misinformation. This warrants regulation on the use of the internet in health practices in SA. A policy on the use of IT in health care practice has been drafted. Further research on the use of IT in the healthcare practice is required before the policy can be finalized. The advantage is that some elementary information is now available. The challenge is to ensure that the time lapse between additional research, policy finalization and policy implementation is kept to a minimum.
OPSOMMING: Agtergrond: In Afrika is internet toegang en gebruik met baie hindernisse belas. Alhoewel Suid-Afrika (SA) met ‘n beter bevolkingspenetrasie as die res van Afrika spog is daar ‘n gebrek aan regulasie in verband met internet en e-pos gebruik tussen gesondheidswerkers en hul pasiënte. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die gebruik van die internet deur dieetkundiges en mediese dokters (MDs) in kliniese praktyk in SA te assesseer en om ‘n konsepbeleid rakende sulke gebruik tussen gesondheidswerkers en hul pasiënte op te stel. Metode: ‘n Dwarssnit analitiese web-gebaseerde opname is met geregisteerde dieetkundiges en MDs onderneem. ‘n Dekkingsbrief met ‘n webskakeling (hyperlink) tot die selfgeadministreerde vraelys is aan alle dieetkundiges en aan ‘n eweredig, gestratifiseerde ewekansige steekproef van MDs met kontakbare e-pos adresse gestuur. Die vraelys het uit oop en toe vrae bestaan, insluitend demografie, invloed van die internet op die kwaliteit van sorg van pasiënte, kwaliteitskontrole met web-hulpmiddels en aspekte van informasie tegnologie (IT) wat deur gesondheidswerkers aanbeveel was om deel te word van voorgraadse gesondheidswetenkaplike onderrig. Resultate: ‘n Totaal van 176 gesondheidswerkers het aan die studie deelgeneem (106 dieetkundiges en 70 MDs). Die gemiddelde ouderdom van die dieetkundiges was 32.6± (8.0) jaar en die MDs 50.5± (8.9) jaar. Die meerderheid respondente in hierdie studie populasie was blank (82%) en vroulik (67%). Oor die algemeen was praktisyne vir 9.1± (8.0) jaar in praktyk. Die meerderheid dieetkundiges (58%) en MDs (68%) het toegang tot die internet by beide hul praktyk of werkplek en hul huis. Meer dieetkundiges (65%) as MDs (41%) het e-pos of internet gebruik. MDs het nie die internet vir navorsingsdoeleindes gebruik nie, terwyl ‘n vyfde van dieetkundiges (21%) raporteer het dat hulle die internet vir navorsingsdoeleindes gebruik het. ‘n Groot persentasie van die populasie [MDs (69%) en dieetkundiges (82%)] het gerapporteer dat die internet tot ‘n verbetering in sorg van hul pasiënte gelei het. Die dieetkundiges (60%) en MDs (53%) in hierdie studie was onseker hoe om informasie te verkry en die betroubaarheid en akuraatheid van die informasie vanaf internetbronne te bevestig. Opsomming: In hierdie studie word internet in die praktyke van die meerderheid dieetkundiges en tot ‘n mindere mate in die van MDs geinkorporeer. Die noodsaaklikheid vir opleiding in die gesondheidsberoepe met betrekking tot die gebruik van die internet is aan die lug gebring. Hierdie studie weerspieël dat alhoewel gesondheidswerkers onbewus was van die geloofwaardigheid van internet informasie, dit nie die gebruik van die internet in hul praktyk gestop het nie. Dit is ‘n area van kommer aangesien dit potensieel na die verspreiding van misinformasie kan lei. Dit motiveer dus reguleering van die gebruik van die internet in gesondheidspraktyke in SA. ‘n Beleid oor die gebruik van IT in gesondheidspraktyke is in konsepvorm opgetrek. Verdere navorsing oor die gebuik van IT in gesondheidspraktyke word benodig om die konsepbeleid te finaliseer. Die voordeel is dat basiese inligting nou beskikbaar is. Die uitdaging is om te verseker dat die tydsduur tussen addisionele navorsing, beleidsfinaliseering en beleidsimplementering tot ‘n minimum gehou word.

eHealth is commonly defined as health services and information provided through the Internet and related technologies. Health educators have taken advantage of Internet and social media venues to disseminate health information essential to health risk management, disease prevention, and disease management and did not have a validated theoretical model to explain their experiences. The goal of this study was to create and test an integrated model of eHealth communication specific to 18-30 year old college students based on five research questions that identified and confirmed the factors most highly correlated with the presentation of health information on Internet or social media venues that improve eHealth literacy and provoke eHealth behavioral intention among college students. A sample of over 1400 18-30 year old college students was surveyed about their general and health information related use of the Internet and social media. As a result of exploratory factor analysis and subsequent structural equation modeling, the proposed theoretical model was revised and tested for statistical power. Two revised integrative models of eHealth communication, one for Internet and one for social media, were developed and validated. The model for social media shows statistically significant paths throughout the model; however, the model for the Internet reveals that the path between two constructs and Online Health Behavior are not statistically significant and is worthy of further examination. This study has important practical implications for eHealth educators, organizations dedicated to informing the public about specific diseases or health promotion techniques, health practitioners seeking improved strategies for effective eHealth message design, and to health information professionals.

The problem of the study was to establish valid criteria for evaluating health-related World Wide Web [WWW] sites. From a table of specifications, a pool of 39 items was developed into a Criteria List. A nine member jury of experts composed of professionals from the discipline of Library and Information Science was used to determine content validity of the items. The items on the Criteria List were sent to the expert panel of jurors for the first review. To determine which items would be retained, revised or eliminated, the items were subjected to both a quantitative and qualitative review. The revised Criteria List was then sent to the expert panel of jurors for the second review. Responses from the second review were also subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. However, this time the quantitative review included the use of the Content-Validity Ratio [CVR]. All items on the Criteria List that were not statistically significant at p <.05 were eliminated. The final Criteria List contained 27 items from the 39 originally proposed items.
Department of Physiology and Health Science

The primary purpose of this project is to develop an online forum to facilitate communication among educators, parents, and students resulting in an open environment for more informed decisions by all those involved in the educational process. The second purpose is the personal development of an electronic learning application using online tools needed for an effective online learning environment that will cost the school district little or nothing.

There has in recent years been interdisciplinary research on utilizing machine learning for detecting and classifying neurodegenerative disorders with the sole goal of outperforming state-of-the-art models in terms of metrics such as accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity. Specifically, these studies have been conducted using existing networks on ”novel” methods of pre-processing data or by developing new convolutional neural networks. As of now, no work has looked into how different normalization techniques affect a deep or shallow convolutional neural network in terms of numerical stability, its performance, explainability, and interpretability. This work delves into what normalization technique is most suitable for deep and shallow convolutional neural networks. Two baselines were created, one shallow and one deep, and applied eight different normalization techniques to these model architectures. Conclusions were drawn based on our analysis of numerical stability, performance (metrics), and methods of Explainable Artificial Intelligence. Our findings indicate that normalization techniques affect models differently regarding the mentioned aspects of our analysis, especially numerical stability and explainability. Moreover, we show that there should indeed be a preference to select one method over the other in future studies of this interdisciplinary field.

Patient’s mobility throughout his lifetime leaves a trial of information scattered in laboratories, clinical institutes, primary care units, and other hospitals. Hence, the medical history of a patient is valuable when subjected to special healthcare units or undergoes home-care/personal-care in elderly stage cases. Despite the rhetoric about patient-centred care, few attempts were made to measure and improve in this arena. In this thesis, we will describe and implement a high-level view of a Patient Centric information management, deploying at a preliminary stage, the use of Agent Technologies and Grid Computing. Thus, developing and proposing an infrastructure that allows us to monitor and survey the patient, from the doctor’s point of view, and investigate a Persona, from the patients’ side, that functions and collaborates among different medical information structures. The Persona will attempt to interconnect all the major agents (human and software), and realize a distributed grid info-structure that directly affect the patient, therefore, revealing an adequate and cost-effective solution for most critical information needs. The results comprehended in the literature survey, consolidating Healthcare Information Management with emerged intelligent Multi-Agent System Technologies (MAS) and Grid Computing; intends to provide a solid basis for further advancements and assessments in this field, by bridging and proposing a framework between the home-care sector and the flexible agent architecture throughout the healthcare domain.

The goal of this project was to implement the Helpdesk Support Alert System in the Data Center Services (DCS) of California State University, San Bernardino's (CSUSB's) Information Resource and Technology Division (IRT). DCS is responsible for ensuring uninterrupted operation of all CSUSB administrative computing systems. These responsibilities include user support, system maintenance, and system security. The DCS helpdesk cannot be staffed 24 hours a day; this application is designed to alert DCS technicians of emergencies when they are away from the helpdesk. The Helpdesk Support Alert System sends out an automated emergency alert in the form of a short text message to technicians' mobile phones. Technicians respond back to their main office by using the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) capability of their mobile phones.

Ce document porte sur l'extraction d'attributs géométriques présents sur les modèles 3D résultant de l'acquisition numérique de fragments archéologiques. Ces attributs sont ensuite exploités à des fins de classifications, de reconstructions et de remontages.
Doctorat en sciences appliquées
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Scholarly interest for the impact of technologies on democracy has raised in parallel to the decline of political participation. Technology has often been seen as either one of the causes of the crisis of representative democracy or as a powerful remedy to heal the negative externalities generated by party oligopolies.

The study of the impact of new media in party politics or presidential elections dates back the forties (with the outgrowth of radio) and has evolved in cyclical waves until today, covering the emergence of television, the development of global telecommunications, the birth of internet and finally what’s popularly called the Web 2.0.

The notion of eDemocracy emerges from this dynamic, but is in a league of its own.

There is no agreement on many of the terms that one needs to use to dissect its meaning. Scholars diverge on virtually every foundational concept: from the very definition of democracy and interactivity, to the core functions of political parties, to the definition of propaganda as opposed to political communication or to political marketing. As a consequence of this, there is little agreement on both what could be done in theory with eDemocracy and what is actually done in practice.

A permanent tension exist between idealtypes and real types in this domain.

The aim of this research is to prove this thesis with the largest and most global research unit of political parties web sites at the time of writing.

The choice of an information architecture approach has allowed to cover some uncharted territory while providing a first set of data on the structures of the political web (in 2004-2005) for public scrutiny.

The core of this research contribution consists in a basic taxonomy and a set of data (on the intentions and on the information architecture) resulting from a 10 years observational research on the early actors of the political web (stricto sensu i.e. 2073 political parties web sites), reviewed with a new degree of detail (through an ad hoc software procedure aiming at dissecting the structure of political web sites) and grouped into 3 main families (protosites, mesosites and neosites) of party web sites. These clusters of homogeneous web sites share a common way to deal with space, with files, with usability, with multimedia.

Classic views on eDemocracy insisted on the improvement deriving from more political information online: in theory, the more information we have, the more we can compare it and use it for our political orientation/participation. In practice, to describe the problem in cybernetic terms, this empirical research shows that load appears to be an issue for most party sites: there is too often either too little content (one out of five party sites around the world is a "protosite") or too much (11% of the observed universe materializes in real “content caverns”). A little more than 4% of the sites (a high end mesosite or neosite) had between 10000 and 48,000 links !

Cyber optimists have seen in the proliferation of party web sites a sign of improved party competition. For political minorities or for incumbent parties, in the political web, like in eCommerce, what really makes the difference is the conversion rate i.e. the number of visitors that turn into involved voters. Now, with the type of technical, socio-economical constraints reducing the widespread access to the net, with motivational factors (trust and degree of social connectedness) that may alter the individual’s response to the online information offer, with the imperfect implementation (in terms of usability) of the information architecture requirements for optimal political persuasion and communication online, the actual conversation rate of political parties web sites is likely to remain modest.

One of the most characteristic uses of the political web discovered in this research is to provide cloud like archival services for the party community. Parties - in the first ten years of the political web - were trying to check mainstream media and use their sites as a low cost, contemporary version of the party newspapers of the 70s.

Although this dissertation is not investigating the specific impact of party sites, the structural analysis carried out in the empirical validation suggests that the architecture of party sites in the years 1995-2005 was developing in such a way to be less and less capable of injecting meaningful inputs in the circuitry of modern democratic institutions. Engaged in a frontal competition with traditional news media (and deprived of the same assets), the early political web stricto sensu (and the set of interactive applications it contains) seems to be too a weak vector to channel adequate stimuli to alter and modify electoral processes or institutional dynamics.

The majority of the respondents of a political webmasters survey (107 individuals responded to the survey) carried out in the course of this research project indicates that the party site is not the party's leaders favourite platform to launch messages (64% of the answers disagree or strongly disagree to the statement). The majority of the respondents in the same empirical fieldwork agrees to the following statements: “the web is not the most important tool for the party communication strategy (58%)”, “key messages are published simultaneously on all media available (77%)”, “the party has created this site to allow people to contact candidates directly (63%)”, “the biggest part of the interaction with the public happens live, in meetings - the web is used essentially to post the party documents and to give news to the electorate (73%)”.

The most interesting results of this question are related to the transactive / mediating role of party communication online. It is beyond any doubt that in the view of these respondents their site has not been created “to invite the opposition to discuss with us (81%)”. If there is a politically relevant process that goes on in these sites it’s really among like-minded.

The mission statement [our party site is meant] “to gather the wants and needs of the electorate” splits respondents in two (54% of the respondents agrees and 47% and disagrees), but 73% of all respondents also agrees that most of the interactions with the electorate are non mediated, thus limiting the relevance of the political web stricto sensu to a mere information delivery platform.

The central thesis emerging from this first major reality check of the political web is that the structure of most party sites is simply not made to generate the ambitious levels of deliberative democracy. Not only a large number of party sites are microscopic, but they lack the basic means for human to human interactivity, a criticism that .In 34,7% of the cases scrutinized in the survey the sites lacked even of the mailto command (used to allow end users to write mails to the webmaster). In 51.9% of the cases there is no form at all, to facilitate structured communications between the party and the audience. The majority of the early actors of the political web were not structured to engage in deliberative activities. Only a fraction of the universe (between 1 and 2%) showed multiple forms and input methods corresponding to advanced neosites (along the model of the US Green Party Action Centre) or the so called over exposure sites (such as the Argentinian Humanista party). The bottom line is that interactivity levels found – worldwide - on the largest array of political parties sites were (in the period between 1995 and 2005) simply discouraging, if one tends to believe in the rhetoric of eDemocracy.

A corollary of my central thesis is that the reality of the political web generated by parties between 1995 and 2005, shows a significant presence of techniques and communication forms typical of political marketing and propaganda. ‘Commands’, calls for ortopraxy, confrontational communication and a growing number of ‘digital tricks’ structure the toolbox of the best party web architects. A form of weak propaganda (the only sort of ‘naked hand’ propaganda that most political parties can afford to pay) has invaded and captured cyberspace. And the user community is becoming increasingly aware of this.

This research does not cover the user dimension. However marginal data obtained in one of the three empirical sections (the Web Master survey) seem to indicate that the political web (of the early years) maintained the capacity to swing some marginal seats.

This research covers forms of interactivity based on BBS, online fora and blogs but does not cover the historical period of the development of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The scientific conclusions are therefore intrinsically limited in value to the decade they refer to, but it is argued in the conclusions that recent surveys (Internet and Campaign 2010 Survey by Pew) do not seem to indicate that the so called Web 2.0 is drastically changing the levels of online political participation.

Doctorat en Information et communication
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is the definitive electronic repository for experimentally-derived protein structures, composed mainly of those determined by X-ray crystallography. Approximately 200 new structures are added weekly to the PDB, and at the time of writing, it contains approximately 97,000 structures. This represents an expanding wealth of high-quality information but there seem to be few bioinformatics tools that consider and analyse these data as an ensemble. This thesis explores the development of three efficient, fast algorithms and software implementations to study protein structure using the entire PDB. The first project is a crystal-form matching tool that takes a unit cell and quickly (< 1 second) retrieves the most related matches from the PDB. The unit cell matches are combined with sequence alignments using a novel Family Clustering Algorithm to display the results in a user-friendly way. The software tool, Nearest-cell, has been incorporated into the X-ray data collection pipeline at the Diamond Light Source, and is also available as a public web service. The bulk of the thesis is devoted to the study and prediction of protein disorder. Initially, trying to update and extend an existing predictor, RONN, the limitations of the method were exposed and a novel predictor (called MoreRONN) was developed that incorporates a novel sequence-based clustering approach to disorder data inferred from the PDB and DisProt. MoreRONN is now clearly the best-in-class disorder predictor and will soon be offered as a public web service. The third project explores the development of a clustering algorithm for protein structural fragments that can work on the scale of the whole PDB. While protein structures have long been clustered into loose families, there has to date been no comprehensive analytical clustering of short (~6 residue) fragments. A novel fragment clustering tool was built that is now leading to a public database of fragment families and representative structural fragments that should prove extremely helpful for both basic understanding and experimentation. Together, these three projects exemplify how cutting-edge computational approaches applied to extensive protein structure libraries can provide user-friendly tools that address critical everyday issues for structural biologists.

Dans le domaine des TIC, les services de demain seront certainement basés sur des systèmes ubiquitaires, omniprésents et pervasifs. Ces systèmes devront prendre en considération différents paramètres provenant de l'environnement de l'utilisateur, c'est à dire son contexte. Le contexte de l'utilisateur peut être composé d'informations statiques ou dynamiques, objectives ou subjectives, quantitatives ou qualitatives. Il peut inclure des données telles que la localisation géographique, les caractéristiques du terminal utilisé, la température ambiante, l'humeur de l'utilisateur. Afin d'améliorer la QoS et la QoE, les services et les systèmes doivent être adaptés aux changements du contexte des utilisateurs. Le contexte doit donc être collecté et interprété et les règles d'adaptation du système doivent être définies. Sur les systèmes étendus, riches, dynamiques et hétérogènes, tels que ceux considéré dans le cadre de cette thèse, ces opérations doivent être automatisées. Vu la quantité et la complexité des données contextuelles à considérer, l'utilisation de la sémantique dans la gestion de contexte peut faciliter cette automatisation et ouvrir la porte au raisonnement et à l'adaptation automatiques. Aujourd'hui, peu de solutions viables existent pour cette problématique. Nous proposons alors d'utiliser et d'adapter des mécanismes et technologies provenant du web sémantique pour décrire et manipuler les informations de contexte. Dans un premier temps, nous avons proposé une méthodologie de conception qui nous permit de proposer " Ubiquity-Ont " : une ontologie générique au domaine des TIC, flexible et extensible. Les données de contexte ont alors été décrites sous forme de concepts et d'instances, reliés par des relations sémantiques. Nous avons ensuite proposé une architecture overlay, composée de deux niveaux de vitalisation et permettant d'intégrer un gestionnaire de contexte, basé sur la sémantique, sur des environnements réseaux et services. Cette solution overlay permet de (a) masquer l'hétérogénéité des composants du système et (b) d'augmenter virtuellement les entités du système existant par les capacités nécessaires à la manipulation et au raisonnement sur les données sémantiques du contexte. Nos propositions ont étés implémentées et testées sur une plateforme réelle et appliquées à deux cas d'études : Gestion de la mobilité sur des environnements de réseaux d'accès hétérogènes et Optimisation de la consommation d'énergie dans les terminaux mobiles

Les réseaux véhiculaires font l'objet de recherches actives aussi bien dans le domaine des réseaux que dans celui des transports. Le potentiel des réseaux véhiculaires à fournir des services comme l'information sur le trafic en temps réel ou sur les accidents font de cette technologie un domaine de recherche très important. Ces réseaux peuvent comporter des communications véhicule-à-véhicule (V2V), véhicule-à-infrastructure (V2I), ou une combinaison des deux. La norme IEEE 1609.4 est la spécification multicanal pour l'IEEE802.11p/WAVE des réseaux véhiculaires (VANETs). Elle utilise sept canaux, l'un étant un canal de contrôle (CCH) qui est écouté par les équipements de façon périodique, et les six autres canaux sont utilisés comme canaux de service (SCH). Elle définit également une division du temps en alternance entre les intervalles CCH et les intervalles SCH. L'objet de cette thèse de doctorat est d'évaluer les performances des réseaux VANETs dans le cas des communications véhiculaires sans infrastructure, et au niveau des couches inférieures du standard 802.11p. Dans la première partie, nous proposons une approche MAC d'allocation multicanal opportuniste dans un contexte sans infrastructure. Cette approche est conforme à la norme IEEE1609.4 -2010 de l'architecture WAVE pour un fonctionnement multicanal, et elle est conçue pour des applications de services de données (non urgentes), tout en assurant la transmission des messages de sécurité routière et des paquets de contrôle. Pour maintenir la qualité de service des deux types de messages (urgents et non-urgents) en exploitant la capacité du canal, deux solutions sont proposées. Dans la deuxième partie, lorsque le véhicule sélectionne son canal et contrôle son alternance temporelle entre CCH et SCH, il commence à transmettre ses paquets, en particulier sur le canal CCH, lesquels ont une durée de péremption. Nous présentons une approche visant à minimiser les collisions des émetteurs tout en évitant la contention de début d'intervalle, en particulier dans un contexte de densité élevée de véhicules. Même si les mécanismes proposés ci-dessus diminuent le taux de collision, il n'est pas possible de les supprimer complètement. Dans la troisième partie, nous traitons le problème des collisions entre les paquets diffusés sur le CCH, en particulier quand la charge des messages transmis dépasse la capacité du canal. Pour cela, nous proposons un nouveau mécanisme de codage réseau analogique adapté à la modulation QPSK pour les messages diffusés sur le CCH. Dans cette approche des symboles connus sont envoyés avant d'envoyer les paquets pour estimer les paramètres du canal et une solution explicite est utilisée pour inverser le système de la superposition de deux paquets

Early computerized health information systems supported applications in hospital records and laboratory data collection. Since that time, software has been developed for a number of health care providers such as doctors and pharmacists. Although local area networks are installed at larger institutions, only a few small-scale, special-purpose, wide-area networks are installed for external providers. To be adopted, wide-area networks should provide greater functionality than, and be cost-competitive with, conventional communication methods. Several projects are underway in Health Information Science to develop and evaluate generic, wide-area networks. This dissertation describes the design, analysis, development, implementation and evaluation of a prototype health care network which would be accessible to providers using existing computer equipment and the public switched telephone system. The network software, Health Link, supports reliable, automatic, store-and-forward messaging of medically-sensitive information. Encrypted messages can be authenticated and the software features registered delivery. An application programming interface formats messages in accordance with the HL7 data interchange standard. Simulation studies have been conducted which demonstrate the steady state characteristic behaviour of a node in a uniform cluster. Further studies have investigated a realistic, dynamic, large scale network. A peer-to-peer model and client-server model were analyzed and both were found to be feasible with respect to certain performance and cost criteria. The client-server model was found to be less costly to operate than the peer-to-peer model. The peer-to-peer model can transfer messages in a shorter time than the client-server model. The network software was verified in a field test involving four clinics, one medical laboratory, and one hospital. Data collected in the test provide performance benchmarks, an estimate of message sizes and frequencies, network reliability statistics, and a wealth of observations. Performance benchmarks and message traffic measurements were used to calibrate the simulation models. Results from this and other research indicate that, although most of the technical networking problems can be readily overcome, consensus on standards, health care applications, and initiatives should be promoted before a wide-spread, production network is implemented.
Graduate

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The reliability of information in health social network sites (HSNS) is an imperative concern since false information can cause tremendous damage to health consumers. In this thesis, we introduce a trust framework which captures both human trust level and its uncertainty, and also present advantages of using the trust framework to intensify the dependability of HSNS, namely filtering information, increasing the efficiency of pharmacy marketing, and modeling how to monitor reliability of health information. Several experiments which were conducted on real health social networks validate the applicability of the trust framework in the real scenarios.

D.Litt. et Phil.
The practice of medicine changes constantly and rapidly. Consequently, it is difficult for clinicians to learn about innovations, given the vast quantity of information available. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the process by which practitioners turn clinical problems into questions, and then systematically integrate personal clinical expertise with the best available external evidence as the basis for clinical decisions. To practice EBM, the practitioner is required to search the literature for relevant material, and then to synthesise knowledge and apply findings to each patient. Clinicians require fast and specific access to multiple data sources, but the availability of electronic full text documents has substantially exacerbated the lack of time to read the clinical literature owing to the demands of clinical practice, and is further compounded by the fact that the Web contains much health-related misinformation. Clinicians therefore require a means of searching the literature that will enhance the retrieval of accurate and evaluated clinical data from ranked resources, whereby the most relevant information is retrieved first from the most likely source. Strong correlations exist between four primary steps in EBM, and the formula commonly used in search strategy design in the field of information seeking. The similarities inherent in these steps suggest that an evidence-based approach to information seeking might enable endusers in the health professions to enhance their searching skills and to translate the clinical question into an appropriate information-seeking strategy. A main problem and two sub-problems were investigated, namely whether: · a Web-based EBM information-seeking model could be designed to enhance the information-seeking skills of healthcare practitioners · it was possible to design an information-seeking model more closely aligned with the clinical decision-making model familiar to healthcare practitioners · it was possible to design such a model in a manner that could further enhance the translation of the clinical question into an appropriate information-seeking strategy. Various models in medicine and the domain of information seeking were investigated. It was found that the model of the clinical decision-making process accorded with all six phases of the information-seeking process (ISP), whereas other information-seeking models only addressed the ISP from the formulation of the problem onwards, thus ignoring prior stages of initiation, selection and exploration in the ISP. A Web-based EBM information-seeking model (Model C) was devised and tested for compatibility against a general Web-based information-seeking model, and was found to be valid. Model C was further empirically assessed against a Web site design methodology, and was again found to be compatible. A unique approach to EBM information seeking is thus offered by Model C, which incorporates all aspects of the clinical-decision-making metaphor, as well as the “PICO” EBM filters (Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparative Intervention and Outcome), into a facet analysis template for the design of a clinical search strategy. Prior to selection of the EBM information resource, Model C further allows for the ranking of each resource and for the design of individual browsing and/or analytical search strategies, as appropriate, so as to enhance EBM information seeking amongst healthcare practitioners.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
In 2009, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Service (I-EMS, formerly Wishard Ambulance Service) launched an electronic medical record system within their ambulances and started to exchange patient data with the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC). This unique system allows EMS personnel in an ambulance to get important medical information prior to the patient’s arrival to the accepting hospital from incident scene. In this retrospective cohort study, we found EMS personnel made 3,021 patient data requests (14%) of 21,215 EMS transports during a one-year period, with a “success” match rate of 46%, and a match “failure” rate of 17%. The three major factors for causing match “failure” were (1) ZIP code 55%, (2) Patient Name 22%, and (3) Birth Date 12%. This study shows that the ZIP code is not a robust identifier in the patient identification process and Non-ZIP code identifiers may be a better choice due to inaccuracies and changes of the ZIP code in a patient’s record.