Thesis (D. Min.)--Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / "May 1, 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-118).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005. / "Submitted to Department of Information Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-132)

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 160-173.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Vita. "July 2005." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. G. I. S.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Marc Smith, Committee Member ; P.K. Yeung, Committee Member ; Benjamin Shapiro, Committee Member ; Sheldon Jeter, Committee Member ; Yogendra Joshi, Committee Chair.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία υλοποιήθηκε ένα ολοκληρωμένο σύστημα απεικόνισης κινδύνων πλημμυρών για τον ποταμό Ευρώτα. Η εργασία χωρίζεται σε δύο ενότητες: την Ενότητα 1, Θεωρητικό Πλαίσιο και την Ενότητα 2, Υλοποίηση. Στην Ενότητα 1 αρχικά παρουσιάζονται κάποια εισαγωγικά στοιχεία. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, δίνεται ο ορισμός της πλημμύρας και των αιτίων που την προκαλούν. Στην συνέχεια γίνεται μία αναφορά σε διαχρονικά προβλήματα και στις έννοιες του κινδύνου και της κρίσης, καθώς επίσης στους τρόπους αντιμετώπισης τους από τους αρμόδιους φορείς. Έπειτα γίνεται μία αναφορά στις σύγχρονες ανάγκες. Συνεχίζουμε με την ανάλυση των αισθητήρων που χρησιμοποιούνται στο ποταμό και πως αξιοποιείται το σύστημα λήψης αποφάσεων. Επίσης αναλύουμε τα γεωγραφικά πληροφοριακά συστήματα, τις αρχιτεκτονικές τους , τον τρόπο ανάπτυξη τους καθώς επίσης και την ανάγκη ύπαρξης τους στο διαδίκτυο. Λίγο πριν τελειώσουμε κάνουμε μία αναφορά στις τεχνολογίες που χρησιμοποιούμε και παραθέτουμε και μερικά στατιστικά στοιχεία .Τέλος δίνουμε μερικά παραδείγματα παρόμοιων έργων και των κυριοτέρων υπηρεσιών που προσφέρουν Στην Ενότητα 2 περιγράφεται η δικτυακή πύλη που υλοποιήθηκε, πληρώντας όλες τις προϋποθέσεις που έχουν τεθεί από την Ενότητα 1. Πιο συγκεκριμένα γίνεται αναφορά στις δικτυακές υπηρεσίες που αναπτύχθηκαν, τον τρόπο που λειτουργούν καθώς επίσης και μερικές φορές επεξηγούνται κάποια σημαντικά κομμάτια κώδικα. / This Diploma Dissertation presents a complete system depiction of dangerous floods for the river Eurotas. The dissertation is separated in two units. In Unit 1 initially are represented certain introductive elements such as the definition and the causes of flood, the use of sensors, the decision support system. Also, we analyze Geographic Information Systems (GIS), their architectures as well as their need of existence in the internet. Finally, we finish with a report in the technologies that we use and mention certain statistical elements. In Unit 2, the network gate that was materialised, filling the conditions that have been placed by Unit 1, is described. Particularly, we give a report in the network services that were developed, the way that they function as well as explanation of certain important code.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) have evolved from traditional video games in that they embrace both the technology of the Internet and video games. The massive “exodus” from the physical offline world to online gaming communities brings with it not only a number of unique and exciting opportunities, but also a number of emerging and serious risks. This research set out to examine the unique opportunities and risks to vulnerable individuals, namely, young adults, teenagers and young children; all of whom are considered by many to be priority groups in the protection from harm. The purpose was to examine the reality of vulnerable individuals encountering these opportunities and risks. This research combined a number of methodologies supported by underpinning qualitative and quantitative theories. Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus groups gathered information from teenagers, adults and children in order to critically examine the unique opportunities and risks encountered in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. The findings from these interactions identified specific examples of opportunities and risk posed to vulnerable individuals. The findings demonstrated that there was a need for a support and protection mechanism that promoted the identification and awareness of the potential risk among vulnerable individuals. Emerging from these findings was a set of concepts that provided the evidence base for a Novel Taxonomy of Opportunities and Risks in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game environments that was designed to assist in the assessment of risk. Validation of the proposed taxonomy was achieved by means of an ethnographic study of (World of Warcraft) online gamers’ behaviour and social interactions through unobtrusive video capture of gaming sessions. The Novel Taxonomy of Opportunities and Risks provided a basis for the development of a proof-of-concept Decision Support System; the purpose of which was to assist both social work practitioners and individuals to identify and reduce risks. Representatives from both user groups were consulted for evaluation of the acceptability of such an approach. Favourable responses from participants demonstrated acceptability of the aforementioned approach. The evaluation process also demonstrated how the prototype would serve as a useful tool to make individual users aware of potential dangers. This research presents three novel facets: (1) it advances understanding of the unique opportunities and risks within MMORPG environments; (2) provides a framework for the assessment of risks in MMORPGs through the Novel Taxonomy and (3) demonstrates a novel Decision Support System to assist in the identification and reduction of risk through a proof-of-concept prototype.

Poisonings account for 0.8% of emergency room visits each year. Our review of current toxicological resources revealed a gap in their ability to provide expedient calculations and recommendations, as they are broad in scope and time-consuming to read. Time is crucial in a toxicologic emergency. Delay in first dose can lead to life-threatening sequelae. To bridge the gap, we developed the Antidote Application (AA), a computational system that automatically provides patient-specific antidote treatment recommendation(s) and individualized dose calculation(s). We implemented 27 algorithms that describe FDA approved use and evidence-based practices found in primary literature for the treatment of common toxin exposure. The AA covers 29 antidotes recommended by Poison Control and toxicology experts, 31 toxins from 19 toxin classes, and over 200 toxic entities. We implemented the AA in two formats: a standalone downloadable application for offline use and an online web application. The AA represents a unique educational resource for the study of toxicology with the potential of being adopted for point of care decision support. The system also provides guidance for reporting toxic exposures regionally and nationally as required by accrediting bodies and some states. The AA system has the potential for reducing initial dose delays and medication errors. To the best of our knowledge, the AA is the first educational and decision support system in toxicology that provides patient-specific treatment recommendations and drug dose calculations. The downloadable and online Antidote Applications are publically available at http://www.met-hilab.org/files/antidote/antidote_application.jar and http://projects.met-hilab.org/antidote/ respectively.

We describe an online clinical decision support (CDS) system, Lung Cancer Assistant (LCA), which we have developed to aid the clinicians in arriving at informed treatment decisions for lung cancer patients at multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings. LCA integrates rule-based and probabilistic decision support within a single platform. To our knowledge, this is the first time this has been achieved in the context of CDS in cancer care. Rule-based decision support is achieved by an original ontological guideline rule inference framework that operates on a domain-specific module of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT), containing clinical concepts and guideline rule knowledge elicited from the major national and international guideline publishers. It adopts a conventional argumentation-based decision model, whereby the decision options are listed along with arguments derived by matching the patient records to the guideline rule base. As an additional feature of this framework, when a new patient is entered, LCA displays the most similar patients to the one being viewed. Probabilistic inference is provided by a Bayesian Network (BN) whose structure and parameters have been learned based on the English Lung Cancer Database (LUCADA). This allows LCA to predict the probability of patient survival and lay out how the selection of different treatment plans would affect it. Based on a retrospective patient subset from LUCADA, we present empirical results on the treatment recommendations provided by both functionalities of LCA and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we present preliminary work, which may allow utilising the BN to calculate survival odd ratios that could be translated into quantitative degrees of support for the guideline rule-based arguments. An online version of LCA is accessible on http://lca.eng.ox.ac.uk.