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Telemedicine systems represent significant achievements in the provision of clinical medicine and health care service using telecommunication and information technologies for the purpose of remote monitoring. Almost all telemedicine systems require a network-enabled device, ranging from server machine to smart phone, which delivers the data as a transmission gateway. The research in this thesis introduces the hardware and software design of a novel Internet-based real time DSP system in the application of telemedicine. Before this work, it was not previously achievable or economically feasible to develop a telemedicine system with a truly embedded measurement platform for real-time monitoring of clinical information on a global scale. The novelty of this design consists in embedding the Internet-based monitoring into the real-time signal processing system, as well as incorporating the merits of wireless communication and global distributed measurement. To demonstrate this concept, a prototype of a truly embedded device incorporating either a browser-based application or a LabVIEW software application has been designed and developed, which is able to provide real-time biomedical signal acquisition, processing, wired/wireless transmission, visualisation, storage and retrieval via the Internet. The concept-to-prototype manipulates multiple biomedical signals from multi-sensors during studies and distributes them to the Internet. The prototype was evaluated on volunteers in vivo under ethical approval. The designed system was also tested under various physiological conditions and different Internet speeds. It manifests desirable performance regarding multi-functionality, ubiquitous accessibility, robustness, and adaptability. The full functionality of this innovative system successfully enables clinicians to remotely monitor a patient's physical condition in real-time globally. The experimental results obtained from the host are in close agreement with the expected performance of the designed system, which proffers evidence that this system represents a true innovation in the realm of telemedicine.

Healthy romantic relationships are associated with a multitude of positive physical and mental health outcomes. Conversely, low relationship quality and relationship dissolution are associated with risk for poor health outcomes. Accordingly, numerous studies investigate ways to preserve healthy relationships through the use of preventative relationship education interventions, many of which improve relationship outcomes. However, evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of these interventions is somewhat mixed, and promising interventions often fail to reach at-risk populations due to high participant burden. There is a movement within clinical psychology to create easily accessible, targeted therapy protocols in order to increase the broad availability of these evidence-based interventions. The current study aimed to replicate and extend the Marriage Hack (MH), a brief, evidence-based preventative relationship intervention designed to stabilize the natural decline in relationship quality over time. This study addressed four specific aims designed to: 1) examine the efficacy of the MH intervention using an abbreviated protocol; 2) extend the original MH intervention by investigating theory-based mechanisms of change and assessing individual health outcomes; 3) explore how theory-based mechanisms change over time; and, 4) evaluate the relationship between within-person and between-person variance in process variables and outcome measures. Seventy-eight (N = 78) couples were randomized to the 4-week MH protocol (n = 41) or control condition (n = 37). Results demonstrated men in the intervention group exhibited 1) greater improvements in relationship satisfaction and 2) decreases in both anxiety and depression compared to men in the control group. This study did not replicate the findings of the original MH for additional outcome variables and process variables for men or women. No support was found for mediating effects of additional theory-based mechanisms of change on outcome measures. However, exploratory intensive longitudinal analyses revealed noteworthy relationships between within-person and between-person variance in process variables and treatment outcomes. Research recommendations to further improve preventative relationship interventions and clinical implications of the current findings are discussed.

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Over the past 20 years, with the development and expansion of computer- and internet-based services (e.g., psychoeducational, intervention, and testing programs), the integration of technology with the treatment of mental health disorders has sparked one of the most debated topics in the mental health profession. With no clear end for this debate in sight, many believe that clinicians wish to reach a consensus and adopt a universal stance on computer-based psychological services so that discussion and research can be shifted to make meaningful contributions for the future. Although paramount, many licensed psychologists have yet to state their stance of whether they believe that internet-based therapeutic methods can be helpful; with fewer having declared whether they would be willing to utilize such techniques if given the opportunity. For this reason, the current study aimed to create a multi-focused survey to explore the attitudes of currently licensed and future clinicians (current Ph.D. or Psy.D. doctoral candidates) to explore differences in their acceptance of tele-health therapeutic interventions. An online survey was created to assess such attitudes across various domains of tele-health, as well as assess acceptance or rejection of such modalities. Clinical training directors, faculty, and students from around the United States, as well as members from the APA Division 12 (clinical psychology) were invited to participate. Binary logistic regression, percentages, and descriptive statistics were utilized to examine the data. Data indicated that no significant differences between currently licensed and future psychologists exist in their endorsement of tele-health modalities. However, it was found that cognitive-behavioral-, cognitive-, behavioral-, and systems-oriented psychologists were significantly more endorsing, and willing to utilize tele-health modes of interventions than were dynamic/analytic, or existential-oriented therapists. Data was further analyzed by gender, age, and the interaction of age * orientation. Results of this study will aid in creating a consensus as to the utilization of tele-health practices and help drive research by demonstrating which modalities (e.g., web camera, e-mail, etc.) and orientations should be the focus of research.

Abstract South Africa has one of the largest population of adults living with HIV. About 30 to 60% of people living with HIV have been found to have HAND which can affect treatment with HAART which requires 95% compliance rate in order to be effective. Interventions that seek to alleviate the cognitive deterioration that is associated with HIV can include Internet based rehabilitation programmes. However, internet based interventions are plagued by poor adherence and attrition rates. The aim of the study was to describe the challenges and facilitating factors in the process of implementing the CogMed™ Working Memory Training Programme at a public HIV clinic for adults living with HIV. The study used a qualitative method with an ethnographic approach. Data was collected through CogMed™ administrator console, observations, interactions with gatekeepers, interactions and interviews with participants and interviews healthcare workers. The factors involved in the implementation process were categorised into the four “Stages of Use”. In the Recruitment/Consideration Stage perception of need, identifying and defining an ideal user were the main themes. Factors affecting the Initiation of Use Stage were sense of obligation, time to commit and access to suitable training environment. Utilisation of Service was influenced by ease of drop out, ease of use, perceived cost versus the perceived benefits of participating. Predisposing, enabling, and needs factors that affected adherence and participation were explored. Finally the Outcomes Stage covered the experiences and perceptions of using the rehabilitation tool. Limitations of the study were also discussed. Keywords: CogMed, Working Memory, HIV, HAND, Internet based interventions, Stages of Use

Software systems are getting larger and more complex, while the requirements are becoming vaguer and more rapidly changing. These trends make current software development more and more likely a team work. To integrate multiple developers into a coherent structured management process and make team software development a positive-sum game for both higher productivity and better quality, many team soft ware development methodologies have been proposed and practised. An emerging methodology is collaborative programming, which allows a group of programmers to work together on the same source code for design, implementation of individual components, and integration of individual components. Compared with other team software methodologies that only address needs in some phases or situations, collaborative programming is more adaptive to the variety of different phases or situations in a team software development process. A core technical component in collaborative programming is collaborative editing, which allows a group of programmers to view and edit the same source code. To support different phases or situations in an Internet-based collaborative programming process, collaborative editing must meet the requirements of supporting unconstrained, responsive, real-time collaborative editing; unconstrained, syncretic, non-real-time collaborative editing; and smooth, flexible switching between real-time and non-real-time collaborative editing. This thesis research contributes several novel techniques to address these requirements, and an Internet-based collaborative programming environment to integrate those techniques. These research contributions have advanced state-of-the-art technologies on col laborative editing for supporting Internet-based collaborative programming. First, we contribute a collaborative highlighting gestural communication technique for unconstrained, responsive, real-time collaborative editing. This technique is particularly effective in improving the quality of real-time interaction on text-based source code documents. The contribution to the operational transformation technology is the extension of the technology to support group awareness. It includes a package of operational transformation functions and transformation control algorithms for consistency maintenance in collaborative highlighting, and a flexible undo solution that has the capability of undoing any highlighting operation at any time. Second, we contribute a flexible operation-based merging technique for unconstrained, syncretic, non-real-time collaborative editing, which is efficient and has the capability of textually integrating all changes, and automatically detecting and resolving syntactic conflicts according to application-dependent user-specified policies. The contribution to the operational transformation technology is the extension of the technology to support unconstrained, syncretic, non-real-time collaborative editing. Its includes a log compression algorithm, a textual merging algorithm, and a syntactic merging algorithm. Moreover, we contribute a flexible notification technique to support flexible collaborative editing: unconstrained, responsive, real-time collaborative editing; uncon strained, syncretic, non-real-time collaborative editing; and smooth, flexible switching between them. The contribution to the operational transformation technology is the extension of the technology to support flexible collaborative editing. It includes a new transformation control algorithm that has a linear time complexity, two notification algorithms that support propagation and acceptance of any notifications at any time, and a notification propagation protocol that is efficient for both real-time and non-real-time collaborative editing.

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Abstract According to the development of industry, conventional surveillance system has not already satisfied by the demand today. The combination application of the CCD camera and image analysis technology in personal computer could enhance the functionality and more and more get a lot of attraction on it. Therefore, CCD camera is gradually popular in people live and industry application. However, CCD camera depends on the process ability of personal computer very much. Furthermore, it can¡¦t work well independently on the application. Based on these problems, this paper proposes an effective monitoring technique to establish an image servo module through using the embedding Ethernet controller with CMOS image sensor. The ¡§image servo module¡¨ can execute independently the designate image monitor work. Eventually, an ¡§Internet-based remote visual monitoring system¡¨ was built by integrating ¡§image servo module¡¨ and ¡§database service system¡¨ to widely promote the application on surveillance system. From the experiment system, user can use the IE explore or Netscape to supervise the internet-based image monitor system from web-server. In addition, a real-time monitor system based on VB program tool was also developed for any computer to monitor or setup the remote image server module to achieve the designated work. The transfer speed of Internet image server system is 7~8 frames/s. Keywords¡Gimage servo module, Internet-based remote visual monitoring systems

abstract: An ever expanding body of research has shown that children of divorce are at increased risk for a range of maladaptive outcomes including academic failure, behavior problems, poor psychological adjustment, reduced self-concept, and reduced social competence (Amato, 2001). Furthermore, the widespread prevalence of divorce makes preventing these poor outcomes a pressing public health concern. The Children of Divorce-Coping with Divorce (CoD-CoD) program is an internet-based selective prevention that was derived from recent research identifying modifiable protective factors in children of divorce including active and avoidant coping, divorce appraisals, and coping efficacy. CoD-CoD addresses these putative mediators through careful adaptation of intervention components previously demonstrated to be effective for children from disrupted families (Pedro-Carroll & Alpert-Gillis, 1997; Stolberg & Mahler, 1994; Sandler, et al., 2003). In the CoD-CoD efficacy trial, 147 children ages 11-16 whose family had received a divorce decree within 48 months of the intervention start date served as participants. Participants were assessed in two waves in order to test the small theory of the intervention as well as the interventions effects on internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Analyses indicated that the program effectively reduced the participants total mental health problems and emotional problems as reported on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (d = .37) and for total mental health problems this effect was stronger for children with greater baseline mental health problems (d = .46). The program also had mediated effects on both child and parent-reported total mental health problems whereby the program improved coping efficacy for children with low baseline coping efficacy which led to reduced parent-reported mental health problems. To the author's knowledge this is the first randomized controlled trail of internet-based mental health program for children or adolescents which utilizes an active control condition. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2011