Braunschweig, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2007 u.d.T.: Fahrig, Torsten: Kooperative Optimierung von Raumluftströmungen mittels agentengestützter Regelungstechnik in einer computational steering Umgebung / Hergestellt on demand

Zugl.: Darmstadt, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2004 / Hergestellt on demand

Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2002.

Techn. University, Diss., 2004--München.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Hohenheim.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2002--Köln.

Zugl.: Erlangen, Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2005.

Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Berlin.

Abstract The possibilities of teleradiology to modify the radiological service process in a regional, international and mobile setting were investigated by building new types of technical connections and then by evaluating their feasibility. First a teleradiology link based on low-end technology was built for primary care and hospital settings. On evaluation, the total diagnostic agreement between the transmitted images and the original films was 98%. Then, a work practice-oriented approach was used to gain an understanding of the relationship between the emerging teleradiology work practice and the newly implemented technology. Ethnographically informed fieldwork and cooperative workshops were utilized. According to findings, articulation work that supports the key tasks is mostly conducted at the receiving site, and radiologists have to rely on much less information in image interpretation. The decisions made at the sending site influence the outcome. To study the idea of consultations between different countries, a connection utilizing the Internet was built between university hospitals in Oulu, Reykjavik and Tromsø. After 131 images, a suitable image compression ratio was selected. Image quality and transfer time of the 80 clinical case readings were found to be adequate for teleradiology. A wireless image consultation system for radiological sub-specialist consultations based on a portable computer and a mobile phone with secure access to the hospital network was set up and tested. The transmitted images of 68 patients were acceptable for final diagnosis in 72% of the cases. The wireless link saved the senior radiologist a hospital visit in 24% of the cases. A smartphone was then used to communicate computed tomography scans in a feasibility study of 21 patient cases of brain attacks. All transmitted image series were suitable for giving a preliminary consultation to the clinic, and in one case even a final report could be made. In a real life clinical setting of the study with neuroradiological and neurosurgical emergencies, two different smartphone platforms with electronic patient record integration were built in European research projects and evaluated with sets of 115 and 150 patient cases. They were good for final diagnosis in 38% and 40% of the cases, respectively. The concept was found to be ready for clinical use. Finally a survey was made showing the status and trends of the usage of eHealth applications in Finland. The results from all the public health care providers and a representative sample of private providers showed that in 2005, teleradiology services were used by 18/21 hospital districts and the usage of all eHealth applications has progressed throughout the entire health care delivery system. Teleradiology services have become an integrated part of eHealth.

This research investigated a neglected problem - interruption of groups by agent advisory systems. The question was whether interruption by the agent advisory system was beneficial. A survey of literature in four areas is included in this dissertation. The areas surveyed were Agents, Online Help, Computer Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW) and Awareness in CSCW. Based on the review, a human subject experiment was conducted. The study investigated whether the style of agent advisory interface improved the performance of group members. There were three sets of groups, a control set that did not have advisory agents, a set that had system provided advisory agents and a set that had group customized advisory agents. The groups worked together using a CSCW application developed with GroupKit, a CSCW toolkit. The groups with group customized advisory agents used an Agent Manager application to define advisory agents that would give them advice as they worked in the CSCW application. The findings showed that the type of advisory agents did not significantly influence the performance of the groups. The groups with customized agents performed slightly better than the other groups but the difference was not statistically significant. When notified that advice was issued, groups with customized agents and groups with provided agents seldom accessed the agent's advice. General design guidelines for agent interruption have not been solved. Future work is needed to finish the job. The definitive solution may be some mixture of the three known individual design solutions.