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Purpose: Hearing loss is a common problem worldwide, and there is an ever- increasing need for more audiologists to be trained. Unfortunately, audiology students cannot always get the clinical experience they need during training. Virtual reality involving computer-based simulation of real-life training experiences is one way of compensating for this. While there are several virtual audiometers available for student use, few of these include the vital case history component. This study sought to develop an interactive virtual patient that includes this component, and to objectively measure the effect of training with this software on student performance. Method: Development of the Patient Simulator Program (PSP) took place in two phases – Phase One involved development of audiometric information and a brief case history summary for 25 patient cases, and Phase Two involved development of comprehensive case histories for these and identification of triggering phrases and keywords for eliciting each piece of information from the virtual patient. Twelve first year audiology students were recruited from the University of Canterbury and divided into matched groups based on their pre-test scores. An alternating treatment design across groups was used to evaluate participants on their verbal and written accuracy, experience, confidence, and efficiency scores on case history tasks. Results: A significant difference was found in verbal accuracy scores between groups at the mid-way assessment point (following simulator training), but not for written accuracy. Differences between groups were not significant at all assessment points for efficiency and experience measures. Confidence gains were greater for the second group to train with the simulator than the first, while performance gains were greater for the first group. Conclusion: These findings support the evidence that simulation training can enhance student’s skills, and provide the first objective evidence for the benefits of training for case history tasks with an interactive virtual patient. While the effect size was small, these findings are a promising springboard for future research into this area. While the PSP is not adequate to replace real clinical encounters, it has potential as an adjunct to the current training program.

The term Virtual Patient (VP) refers to the use of virtual characters which embody patients in a virtual environment. They are implemented in computer simulations to create realistic clinical encounters. VPs have been used successfully in health education to promote and foster clinical communication skills. Additionally, computer simulations offer the advantage of being standardized, safe, repeatable, and do not require as much resources as role-play simulations which rely on actors. This thesis addresses the design and evaluation of a VP-based system aimed for clinical trainees, and uses the field of audiology as a case study. The system is designed to simulate real client encounters and allows students to practice using a standard set of procedures that they have to master in their profession. A wide range of VPs have been implemented for this purpose. The system was evaluated with audiology students, reinforcing the ecological validity of the research. The design of the system was guided by an iterative process of implementation, usability testing, and experiments focusing on students' learning outcomes. The Clinical Audiology Simulator (CAS) was evaluated during five experiments, assessing students learning gains following exposure to the CAS. Learning gains have been assessed through the use of role-play simulations and paper assessments. The procedures evaluated are clinical history taking, pure tone audiometry, and speech audiometry. A further experiment assessed the impact of additional formative feedback on students learning gains, using the pure tone audiometry procedure as an example. The results of these experiments suggest that the system has a great potential to foster students learning, with measurable gains in some of these procedures. They also indicate that feedback and its delivery take an important role in this process. This thesis elaborates how VP-based simulations can reinforce young clinicians' ability to learn procedural skills. I highlight some of the challenges a researcher faces in designing and evaluating such systems, focusing on the implementation of interaction scripts for the VPs, the assessment of learning gains and transfer of skills, and the evaluation of computer simulations as part of a curriculum. VPs have the potential to promote clinical trainees' learning of skills, and to provide students with more opportunities for safe practice in a field where beginning trainees often have few opportunities for actual hands on experience.

In this thesis visual search experiments are devised to explore the feasibility of an eye gaze driven search mechanism. The thesis first explores gaze behaviour on images possessing different levels of saliency. Eye behaviour was predominantly attracted by salient locations, but appears to also require frequent reference to non-salient background regions which indicated that information from scan paths might prove useful for image search. The thesis then specifically investigates the benefits of eye tracking as an image retrieval interface in terms of speed relative to selection by mouse, and in terms of the efficiency of eye tracking mechanisms in the task of retrieving target images. Results are analysed using ANOVA and significant findings are discussed. Results show that eye selection was faster than a computer mouse and experience gained during visual tasks carried out using a mouse would benefit users if they were subsequently transferred to an eye tracking system. Results on the image retrieval experiments show that users are able to navigate to a target image within a database confirming the feasibility of an eye gaze driven search mechanism. Additional histogram analysis of the fixations, saccades and pupil diameters in the human eye movement data revealed a new method of extracting intentions from gaze behaviour for image search, of which the user was not aware and promises even quicker search performances. The research has two implications for Content Based Image Retrieval: (i) improvements in query formulation for visual search and (ii) new methods for visual search using attentional weighting. Futhermore it was demonstrated that users are able to find target images at sufficient speeds indicating that pre-attentive activity is playing a role in visual search. A current review of eye tracking technology, current applications, visual perception research, and models of visual attention is discussed. A review of the potential of the technology for commercial exploitation is also presented.

Virtual machines (VMs) are useful mechanisms for better resource utilization, support for special software configurations, and the movement of packaged software across systems. Exploiting VM advantages in a production setting, however, often requires computer systems with the smallest possible disk-size footprint. Administrators and programmers who create VMs, however, may need a robust set of tools for development. This introduces an important conflict: Minimalism demands that packaged software be as small as possible, while completeness demands that nothing required is missing. We present a system called Lilliputia, which combines resource usage monitoring (through a Linux FUSE filesystem we created called StatFS), with a filtered cloning system, which copies an existing physical or virtual machine into a smaller clone. Finally, we show how Lilliputia can reduce the size of the Trellis Network-Attached-Storage (NAS) Bridge Appliance and the Chemical Shift to 3D Structure protein structure predictor to 10-30% of their original size.

The advent of collaborative technologies has enabled people to work together apart. This has brought about the formation of virtual teams where members, usually from different geographies, come together to work on a common objective. Virtual teams encounter similar teaming issues as intact teams, but face additional challenges which include working with communication technologies and with teammates they might never meet. The nature of virtual work requires team members to manage ambiguity, work independently, adopt technology and work in a less structured environment. / The virtual work dimensions can be further mapped to Hofstede's cultural dimensions of Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Individualism (IDV), Power Dimension Index (PDI) and Masculinity (MAS). Those working in virtual teams should display a lower UAI working with ambiguity, higher IDV as they need to work independently, lower PDI as they work in a less structured environment and higher MAS as they work around systems and technologies. / Organizations can render support to facilitate virtual teaming, and encourage the growth of virtual teams. The organization can provide, among others, training for members to improve virtual teaming, remuneration such as reward and recognition and/or compensation and benefits, infrastructure support such as upgrade of hardware and software, work life balance programs like including virtual team members in company functions and allowing flexible work hours and finally, creating a positive communication environment. / This paper seeks to explore the virtual work dimensions and satisfaction among virtual team members in Malaysia, and the types of support organizations can provide to enhance virtual teaming. The focus will be on organization's support, team members' virtual status, communication channels used and virtual work satisfaction measurement. The need for this research is apparent as Malaysia progresses into the IT era, and would require a new competitive edge to compete for foreign investment and develop competencies for its workforce. Furthermore, similar research into this area of study is lacking. / The exploratory research findings show that only one of three hypotheses was accepted. The first hypothesis reveals that by providing infrastructure support, the organization is able to increase technology adoption. The second and third hypotheses are rejected. For Hypothesis 2, higher virtual status when interacting with work life balance does not have a positive impact on virtual work satisfaction. In fact, the findings reveal that virtual status does not impact work life balance or any of the organization support dimensions. For Hypothesis 3, face-to-face interaction when interacting with training and development does not have a positive impact on virtual work satisfaction. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (MApSc(ComputerScience))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Virtual collaboration-the act of working together across boundaries of space, time, and organization, aided by technology-has become increasingly commonplace in recent years. Doing so, however, presents a number of challenges to those involved. One of these is that because of a lack of experience in collaborating through computer-based collaboration systems, there is little knowledge on how to carry out collaboration virtually. Another is that it is not easy for those not directly involved in the collaboration to know what is, and has been, 'going on' during virtual collaboration. This thesis suggests that both of these challenges can be addressed with the same approach, namely by referring to observations of virtual collaboration. The problem then is how such observations of virtual collaboration can be obtained without requiring those involved in it to document their own actions. To address this problem is the objective of this thesis. The approach proposed here involves three elements: firstly, the collection of data about virtual collaboration; secondly, the modeling of this data; and thirdly, the derivation of increasingly abstract, larger-scale representations of virtual collaboration from this data. These representations are termed patterns of virtual collaboration, which are abstract descriptions of activities of virtual collaboration. A multi-layered conceptual model of information, the Information Pyramid of Virtual Collaboration, is proposed, providing different views of information related to virtual collaboration, at different levels of abstraction. The thesis then suggests how from a given body of data, patterns of virtual collaboration at a corresponding level of the Information Pyramid can be extracted, and how from collections of such patterns more abstract patterns of larger-scale activity can be derived, providing the observations of virtual collaboration sought. In considering how the extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration fits into the larger context of the conception, design, and use of collaboration systems, a Framework for Pattern Extraction and Feedback is proposed. This framework introduces the notion of collaboration memory, a type of organizational memory that contains records of collaborative activity. Moreover, the framework suggests how extracted patterns of virtual collaboration feed back into both ongoing development and use of collaboration systems. Finally, the modeling and extraction of patterns of virtual collaboration is illustrated in a case study involving the LIVENET collaboration system.

In this research, it is suggested that design in text-based virtual worlds can be identified as a series of interactions between users and the virtual environment, and that these interactions for design can be approached using a linguistic perspective. The main assumption of this research is that a parallel can be drawn between the performance of design commands, and the one of speech acts in the physical world. Design in text-based virtual environments can then be articulated using a restricted set of speech acts, as design commands. Virtual worlds, represented as spaces, can be constructed following an architectural design metaphor. This metaphor provides a framework for the organisation of virtual entity relationships, and for the choice of words used to design. A linguistic characterisation is presented, by means of design activities, prototypes and scenarios, which derive from the architectural design metaphor. The characterisation of design is then validated by the analysis of an existing text-based virtual world.