An Investigation into Users’ Perceptions of Value Towards Telemedicine Systems Over Time

Users’ perceptions can affect how telemedicine systems are utilised. This study examined how users’ perceptions of value change over time, and explored underlying influencing factors. A customised telemedicine system built to the preferences of medical, nursing and administrative staff was introduced to the Nepean Outreach Service (NOS), Nepean Hospital, Australia. Perceptions of value towards the system were assessed using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Underlying influencing factors were explored using thematic analysis of interview questions based on the SUS. 10 mobile nurses (Mean age = 44.4 years old, SD = 13.13 years, 1 male) with an average of 3.05 years (SD = 2.31 years) of experience with similar technology initially used the system in October 2013. Each completed the SUS and interview immediately afterwards. The system was implemented for regular use by all NOS staff in November 2013. 18 months later, 8 of the original 10 nurses answered the SUS and interview questions again. The findings were compared. SUS scores significantly declined from 84.69 (SD = 9.01), indicating excellent usability, to 64.00 (SD = 14.25), indicating OK usability (p < 0.05, 95% CI). Over time, nurses had less desire to use the system frequently (p < 0.05, 95% CI), found it more complex (p < 0.05, 95% CI), felt the functions to be not as well integrated (p < 0.05, 95% CI) and felt it featured greater inconsistency (p < 0.05, 95% CI). Interview analysis revealed that perceptions were influenced over time by whether preformed expectations were satisfied, how the system met occupational demands, and the ease of integration into the workplace. In conclusion, perceptions of value towards telemedicine systems can significantly decline over time, and be influenced individual, technological and contextual factors. This study recommends that new telemedicine systems should be continuously adapted to changing user expectations, occupational demands and workplace characteristics

A constrained pressure-temperature residual (CPTR) method for non-isothermal multiphase flow in porous media

For both isothermal and thermal petroleum reservoir simulation, the Constrained Pressure Residual (CPR) method is the industry-standard preconditioner. This method is a two-stage process involving the solution of a restricted pressure system. While initially designed for the isothermal case, CPR is also the standard for thermal cases. However, its treatment of the energy conservation equation does not incorporate heat diffusion, which is often dominant in thermal cases. In this paper, we present an extension of CPR: the Constrained Pressure-Temperature Residual (CPTR) method, where a restricted pressure-temperature system is solved in the first stage. In previous work, we introduced a block preconditioner with an efficient Schur complement approximation for a pressure-temperature system. Here, we extend this method for multiphase flow as the first stage of CPTR. The algorithmic performance of different two-stage preconditioners is evaluated for reservoir simulation test cases.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figures. Sources/sinks description in arXiv:1902.0009

Effects of Intermittent Episodes of Social Stress on the Motivation to Seek Rewards

Undergraduate students: Christopher Lemon, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience MinorMajor/Minor: Major: Psychology; Minor: Chemistry, NeuroscienceFaculty advisor: Alberto del Arco, Department of Health, Exercise Science, and Sports Recreation Management, School of Applied Scienceshttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/neuro_showcase/1004/thumbnail.jp

Toward a Comprehensive Model of Snow Crystal Growth: 4. Measurements of Diffusion-limited Growth at -15 C

We present measurements of the diffusion-limited growth of ice crystals from water vapor at different supersaturation levels in air at a temperature of -15 C. Starting with thin, c-axis ice needle crystals, the subsequent growth morphologies ranged from blocky structures on the needle tips (at low supersaturation) to thin faceted plates on the needle tips (at high supersaturation). We successfully modeled the experimental data, reproducing both growth rates and growth morphologies, using a cellular-automata method that yields faceted crystalline structures in diffusion-limited growth. From this quantitative analysis of well-controlled experimental measurements, we were able to extract information about the attachment coefficients governing ice growth under different circumstances. The results strongly support previous work indicating that the attachment coefficient on the prism surface is a function of the width of the prism facet. Including this behavior, we created a comprehensive model at -15 C that explains all the experimental data. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a kinetic model that reproduces a range of diffusion-limited ice growth behaviors as a function of supersaturation

Effects of intermittent episodes of social stress on reward-seeking and avoidance behaviors

Undergraduate students: Elizabeth Hewitt, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Minor; Christopher Lemon, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience MinorMajor/Minor:Major: Psychology; Minor: Chemistry, NeuroscienceFaculty advisor: Alberto del Arco, Department of Health, Exercise Science, and Sports Recreation Management, School of Applied Scienceshttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/neuro_showcase/1002/thumbnail.jp

Supramolecular quantum dot-porphyrin assemblies for biological oxygen sensing

Thesis (S.M. in Inorganic Chemistry)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 2013.Vita. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Generating metabolic profiles of tumors provides a spatiotemporal map of the concentration of key species to assess and quantify tumor growth, metabolism, and response to therapy. Because the tumor microenvironment is characterized by hypoxia, the concentration of oxygen is an important indicator of tumor health. Understanding how this parameter changes as a function of disease progression is critical to develop novel targeted therapeutics. New non-invasive sensors must be developed that are small enough to penetrate into the tumor and monitor dynamic changes with high resolution. To this end, this thesis presents new oxygen sensors that are a supramolecular assemblies of a quantum dot (QD) and a palladium(II) porphyrin. High spectral overlap between QD emission and porphyrin absorption results in efficient Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) for signal transduction in these sensors. Porphyrins with meso pyridyl substituents bind to the surface of the QD to produce self-assembled nanosensors. Since these macrocycles are sensitive in the 0-160 torr range, they are ideal phosphors for in vivo biological oxygen quantification. The QD serves as a two-photon antenna to enable sensing under two-photon excitation. Multiphoton imaging is a powerful technique that is nondestructive to tissue and provides high-resolution images of live tissue at depths of several hundred microns with submicron spatial resolution. Having studied the photohysical properties of these sensors under both one- and two-photon excitation in organic solvents, these sensors were then encapsulated in lipid micelles to quantify oxygen in aqueous media. In these constructs, the quantum dot also serves as an internal intensity standard, furnishing a ratiometric oxygen sensor. Preliminary in vivo multiphoton imaging and oxygen measurements were conducted using mice with chronic dorsal skinfold chambers or cranial windows. Together, the properties of this sensor establish a ratiometric two-photon oxygen sensor for applications in probing biological microenvironments.by Christopher M. Lemon.S.M.in Inorganic Chemistr

The Chimpanzee Model of Viral Hepatitis: Advances in Understanding the Immune Response and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) have contributed to diverse fields of biomedical research due to their close genetic relationship to humans and in many instances due to the lack of any other animal model. This review focuses on the contributions of the chimpanzee model to research on hepatitis viruses where chimpanzees represented the only animal model (hepatitis B and C) or the most appropriate animal model (hepatitis A). Research with chimpanzees led to the development of vaccines for HAV and HBV that are used worldwide to protect hundreds of millions from these diseases and, where fully implemented, have provided immunity for entire generations. More recently, chimpanzee research was instrumental in the development of curative therapies for hepatitis C virus infections. Over a span of 40 years, this research would identify the causative agent of NonA,NonB hepatitis, validate the molecular tools for drug discovery, and provide safety and efficacy data on the therapies that now provide a rapid and complete cure of HCV chronic infections. Several cocktails of antivirals are FDA approved that eliminate the virus following 12 weeks of once-per-day oral therapy. This represents the first cure of a chronic viral disease and, once broadly implemented, will dramatically reduce the occurrence of cirrhosis and liver cancer. The recent contributions of chimpanzees to our current understanding of T cell immunity for HCV, development of novel therapeutics for HBV, and the biology of HAV are reviewed. Finally, a perspective is provided on the events leading to the cessation of the use of chimpanzees in research and the future of the chimpanzees previously used to bring about these amazing breakthroughs in human healthcare

A block preconditioner for non-isothermal flow in porous media

In petroleum reservoir simulation, the industry standard preconditioner, the constrained pressure residual method (CPR), is a two-stage process which involves solving a restricted pressure system with Algebraic Multigrid (AMG). Initially designed for isothermal models, this approach is often used in the thermal case. However, it does not have a specific treatment of the additional energy conservation equation and temperature variable. We seek to develop preconditioners which better capture thermal effects such as heat diffusion. In order to study the effects of both pressure and temperature on fluid and heat flow, we consider a model of non-isothermal single phase flow through porous media. For this model, we develop a block preconditioner with an efficient Schur complement approximation. Both the pressure block and the approximate Schur complement are approximately inverted using an AMG V-cycle. The resulting solver is scalable with respect to problem size and parallelization.Comment: 35 pages, 3 figure

Social communication between virtual characters and children with autism

Children with ASD have difficulty with social communication, particularly joint attention. Interaction in a virtual environment (VE) may be a means for both understanding these difficulties and addressing them. It is first necessary to discover how this population interacts with virtual characters, and whether they can follow joint attention cues in a VE. This paper describes a study in which 32 children with ASD used the ECHOES VE to assist a virtual character in selecting objects by following the character’s gaze and/or pointing. Both accuracy and reaction time data suggest that children were able to successfully complete the task, and qualitative data further suggests that most children perceived the character as an intentional being with relevant, mutually directed behaviour