In addition to the ever-changing demands of the workforce and student demands, the community college must address how performance and withdrawal are affected by traditional classroom instructional delivery and the inclusion of alternate instructional delivery settings such as internet-based approaches in courses. This quantitative study was conducted to provide evidence-based research to a community college in Northeast Tennessee. Specifically, this research study focused on an important aspect of instructional course delivery methods: What are the relationships between traditional classroom and internet-based course instructional delivery methods in relation to withdrawal and grade-distribution patterns for specified courses (English 1010, Math 1710, Biology 2010, and Business CSCI 1100) at a community college in Northeast Tennessee? Course instructional delivery practice is expensive, regardless of the course delivery method. The community college officials wish to best use their resources and instructional delivery practices. Student withdrawals have a significant effect on the fiscal stability of an institution of higher education. Reducing the number of students who withdraw from a course is instrumental to positive financial health and educational program practices. In this quantitative study, data were gathered through a method of secondary analysis by a community college in Northeast Tennessee and distributed to the researcher for compilation and statistical analysis. Independent samples t tests were used to evaluate whether the mean grade point average and percentage of students withdrawing in English 1010, Math 1710, Biology 2010, and Business CSCI 1100 differed between traditional classroom course sections and internet-based course sections taught in the same academic period. Findings from this study indicated that instructional delivery method does not significantly influence mean grade point averages, and students tend to perform consistently regardless of the instructional delivery setting; however, percentage of student withdrawals vary between instructional delivery methods with the analysis of Biology 2010 finding that traditional classroom course sections had higher withdrawals than did the internet-based course sections.

<p>It is more common now to purchase products and services on the Internet. More and more companies choose to sell their services and products this way. Some services and products the customers can get delivered directly to their computers. Therefore, it is important for entrepreneurs to know when they risk a permanent establishment in another country due to their Internet based activity. If the company gets a permanent establishment in the other country, the other country can tax the income which is relatable to the company’s permanent establishment. The definition of a permanent establishment in Swedish legislation mainly correspond with the OECD:s definition of a permanent establishment. To get a permanent establishment the business shall operate through a fixed place and have a certain degree of permanence. The business should also be wholly or partly carried out in that fixed place. If these requirements are not fulfilled the company will not get a permanent establishment. The OECD does not consider a website a permanent establishment, but the server on which the website is stored can be a permanent establishment. If a website and a server work together they can be considered a “dependent” agent for the company and thereby, the company gets a permanent establishment. The fixed place for the server is the room where it is placed. For the server to be considered a permanent it has to be at the fixed place for six months. The business shall wholly or partly be carried out in that fixed place. The server is considered an automatic equipment; therefore, personnel are not required to be present at the fixed place. Not everyone has the same interpretation concerning if a server shall give a permanent establishment. Therefore, we would like to see a sketch of an international common legislation in income taxation concerning Internet based activity. It would make it easier for all parties to have a common interpretation of the legislation.</p> / <p>Det blir allt mer vanligt att köpa varor och tjänster via Internet. Fler och fler företag väljer att sälja sina tjänster och produkter med hjälp av Internet. Vissa tjänster och produkter kan köparen få levererade direkt till sin dator. Det är därför viktigt för företagare att veta när de riskerar att få fast driftställe i ett annat land på grund av sin internetbaserade verksamhet. Får företaget fast driftställe i det andra landet kan detta land beskatta den inkomst som är hänförlig till det fasta driftstället. Definitionen för fast driftställe i den svenska lagstiftningen stämmer till stor del överens med OECD:s definition av fast driftställe. För att få fast driftställe skall affärsverksamheten drivas från en bestämd plats, ha en viss grad av varaktighet och verksamheten skall helt eller delvis drivas från den bestämda platsen. Uppfylls inte dessa krav kan företaget inte få ett fast driftställe. OECD anser att en hemsida inte kan ge fast driftställe, men servern som hemsidan finns lagrad på kan vara ett fast driftställe. Verkar en hemsida och en server tillsammans kan dessa anses vara en ”beroende” agent för företaget och därmed får företaget ett fast driftställe. Den bestämda platsen för en server anses vara det rum som den befinner sig i. För att servern skall anses vara stadigvarande skall den vara sex månader på den bestämda platsen. Verksamheten skall drivas helt eller delvis genom den bestämda platsen. En server ses som automatisk utrustning och därmed krävs inte att personal är närvarande på den bestämda platsen. Alla har inte samma tolkning gällande om en server skall ge fast driftställe. Därför ser vi gärna att en gemensam internationell lagstiftning i inkomstbeskattning tas fram gällande internetbaserad verksamhet. Det skulle underlätta för alla parter att ha en gemensam tolkning av lagstiftningen.</p>

It is more common now to purchase products and services on the Internet. More and more companies choose to sell their services and products this way. Some services and products the customers can get delivered directly to their computers. Therefore, it is important for entrepreneurs to know when they risk a permanent establishment in another country due to their Internet based activity. If the company gets a permanent establishment in the other country, the other country can tax the income which is relatable to the company’s permanent establishment. The definition of a permanent establishment in Swedish legislation mainly correspond with the OECD:s definition of a permanent establishment. To get a permanent establishment the business shall operate through a fixed place and have a certain degree of permanence. The business should also be wholly or partly carried out in that fixed place. If these requirements are not fulfilled the company will not get a permanent establishment. The OECD does not consider a website a permanent establishment, but the server on which the website is stored can be a permanent establishment. If a website and a server work together they can be considered a “dependent” agent for the company and thereby, the company gets a permanent establishment. The fixed place for the server is the room where it is placed. For the server to be considered a permanent it has to be at the fixed place for six months. The business shall wholly or partly be carried out in that fixed place. The server is considered an automatic equipment; therefore, personnel are not required to be present at the fixed place. Not everyone has the same interpretation concerning if a server shall give a permanent establishment. Therefore, we would like to see a sketch of an international common legislation in income taxation concerning Internet based activity. It would make it easier for all parties to have a common interpretation of the legislation. / Det blir allt mer vanligt att köpa varor och tjänster via Internet. Fler och fler företag väljer att sälja sina tjänster och produkter med hjälp av Internet. Vissa tjänster och produkter kan köparen få levererade direkt till sin dator. Det är därför viktigt för företagare att veta när de riskerar att få fast driftställe i ett annat land på grund av sin internetbaserade verksamhet. Får företaget fast driftställe i det andra landet kan detta land beskatta den inkomst som är hänförlig till det fasta driftstället. Definitionen för fast driftställe i den svenska lagstiftningen stämmer till stor del överens med OECD:s definition av fast driftställe. För att få fast driftställe skall affärsverksamheten drivas från en bestämd plats, ha en viss grad av varaktighet och verksamheten skall helt eller delvis drivas från den bestämda platsen. Uppfylls inte dessa krav kan företaget inte få ett fast driftställe. OECD anser att en hemsida inte kan ge fast driftställe, men servern som hemsidan finns lagrad på kan vara ett fast driftställe. Verkar en hemsida och en server tillsammans kan dessa anses vara en ”beroende” agent för företaget och därmed får företaget ett fast driftställe. Den bestämda platsen för en server anses vara det rum som den befinner sig i. För att servern skall anses vara stadigvarande skall den vara sex månader på den bestämda platsen. Verksamheten skall drivas helt eller delvis genom den bestämda platsen. En server ses som automatisk utrustning och därmed krävs inte att personal är närvarande på den bestämda platsen. Alla har inte samma tolkning gällande om en server skall ge fast driftställe. Därför ser vi gärna att en gemensam internationell lagstiftning i inkomstbeskattning tas fram gällande internetbaserad verksamhet. Det skulle underlätta för alla parter att ha en gemensam tolkning av lagstiftningen.

Background: The Internet is of great importance in today’s health sector, as most Internet users utilize online functions for health related purposes. Concerning the mental health care sector, little data exist about the Internet use of psychiatric patients. It is the scope of this current study to analyze the quantity and pattern of Internet usage among mental health patients. Methods: Patients from all services of the Department of Psychiatry at a university hospital were surveyed by completing a 29-item questionnaire. The data analysis included evaluation of frequencies, as well as group comparisons. Results: 337 patients participated in the survey, of whom 79.5% were Internet users. Social media was utilized by less than half of the users: social networks (47.8%), forums (19.4%), chats (18.7%), blogs (12.3%). 70.9% used the Internet for mental health related reasons. The contents accessed by the patients included: information on mental disorders (57.8%), information on medication (43.7%), search for mental health services (38.8%), platforms with other patients (19.8%) and platforms with mental health professionals (17.2%). Differences in the pattern of use between users with low, medium and high frequency of Internet use were statistically significant for all entities of social media (p < 0.01), search for mental health services (p = 0.017) and usage of platforms with mental health professionals (p = 0. 048). The analysis of differences in Internet use depending on the participants’ type of mental disorder revealed no statistically significant differences, with one exception. Regarding the Internet’s role in mental health care, the participants showed differing opinions: 36.2% believe that the Internet has or may have helped them in coping with their mental disorder, while 38.4% stated the contrary. Conclusions: Most psychiatric patients are Internet users. Mental health related Internet use is common among patients, mainly for information seeking. The use of social media is generally less frequent. It varies significantly between different user types and was shown to be associated with high frequency of Internet use. The results illustrate the importance of the Internet in mental health related contexts and may contribute to the further development of mental health related online offers.

Structural evaluation and seismic vulnerability assessment of Reinforced Concrete (R/C) buildings have especially become the focus of many researches in Turkey and abroad especially after the August 17, 1999 earthquake causing major life and property losses. A devastating earthquake being expected in Istanbul-Marmara region raises many questions on how well the existing buildings are constructed and whether they can stand a major earthquake. Evaluation of existing buildings for seismic vulnerability requires time consuming input preparation (pre-processing), modelling, and post processing of analysis results. The objective of the study is to perform automated seismic vulnerability assessment of existing R/C buildings automatically over the internet by asking internet users to enter their building related data, and streamlining the modelling-analysis-reporting phases by intelligent programming. The internet based assessment tool is prepared for two levels of complexity: (a) the detailed level targets to carry out seismic evaluation of the buildings using a linear structural analysis software developed for this study / (b) the simplified level produces seismic evaluation index for buildings, based on simple and easy to enter general building information which can be entered by any person capable of using an internet browser. Detailed level evaluation program includes a user friendly interface between the internet user and analysis software, which will enable data entry, database management, and online evaluation/reporting of R/C buildings. Building data entered by numerous users over the internet will also enable formation of an extensive database of buildings located all around Turkey. 36 buildings from D&uuml / zce damage database, generated by the cooperation of Scientific and Research Council of Turkey (T&Uuml / BiTAK) and Structural Engineering Research Unit (SERU) after the 17 August 1999 Kocaeli and the 12 November 1999 D&uuml / zce earthquakes, are used in the analyses to identify relationship between calculated indices and observed damage levels of buildings, which will enable prediction of building damage levels for future earthquakes. The research is funded by Science Research Program (BAP 2003-03-03-03), NATO-SfP 977231, and TUBITAK ICTAG-I574 projects. The contribution of the research is composed of a) online building index -performance analysis/evaluation software which might be used by any average internet user, b) an ever-growing R/C building database entered by various internet users.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att vidareutveckla en behandlingsspecifik följsamhetsskala för paniksyndrom vid internetförmedlad kognitiv beteendeterapi (IKBT). Studiens frågeställningar var 1) uppnår skalan tillräcklig interbedömarreliabilitet, 2) finns det ett samband mellan skalan och det tidigare använda följsamhetsmåttet antalet genomförda moduler, och 3) finns det ett samband mellan skalan och behandlingsutfallet. Interbedömarreliabiliteten mellan två bedömare testades genom två omgångar samskattning. 80 deltagare som behandlades med IKBT för paniksyndrom vid enheten för internetpsykiatri i Stockholm skattades sedan enligt den behandlingsspecifika följsamhetsskalan. Även antalet moduler deltagarna genomförde registrerades. Resultaten visade att skalan sammantaget hade en god interbedömarreliabilitet. Vidare korrelerade följsamhetsskalan positivt med både antalet genomförda moduler och behandlingsutfallet. Slutsats: Skattningsskalan vidareutvecklad i föreliggande studie visade indikationer på att vara ett tillförlitligt och användbart instrument för att mäta följsamheten till IKBT vid paniksyndrom. / The purpose of this study was to further develop a treatment-specific rating scale for adherence to internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) for panic disorder. The research questions for this study were 1) does the rating scale show satisfying inter-rater reliability, 2) is there an association between the rating scale and the commonly used measurement of adherence, module completion, and 3) is there an association between the rating scale and treatment outcome. The inter-rater reliability between two raters was assessed twice. 80 participants treated with ICBT for panic disorder at Internetpsykiatrin (the unit for internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy in Stockholm) were then assessed using the treatment-specific rating scale for adherence. Module completion was also registered. Results show that the rating scale had an overall satisfying inter-rater reliability. Furthermore, the rating scale correlated positively with both module completion and treatment outcome. Conclusion: The rating scale further developed in the present study showed indications of being a reliable and useful instrument for measuring adherence to ICBT for panic disorder.

Modern society frequently fails to achieve the goal of improved rationality and this is largely because the conditions for ideal speech do not prevail. We do not always permit everyone an equal opportunity to explain their point of view and the force of the best argument does not always prevail. Communication becomes more difficult when people cannot meet face to face, but it is also hindered when people cannot contact one another easily. There is, therefore, a trade-off between using computer-mediated media for communication and speaking to each other in person. Although meaning can never be shared to the extent that two individuals have precisely the same interpretation of a concept, and society is not based on individuals uniformly embracing identical views or values, in every day life consensus needs to be reached and truth claims, normative validity claims and aesthetic validity claims must be made, debated and eventually accepted or refuted. Collaboration on substantial tasks that require the development of concepts and reconstruction of meaning depends on effective communication. In the distributed social structures which have developed as a result of globalisation it is important that dispersed teams are able to work together. This includes collaborative learning in distance education. In the action research undertaken first year Informatics students could choose between doing team work face-to-face, or as dispersed teams communicating via e-mail or WebCT. The discussions were recorded and were analysed to identify the different types of communicative action engaged in. This was done to understand how this group collaborate so that success factors could be identified and proposals be made regarding education in the use of e-mail. It was found that the virtual (dispersed) teams studied did not succeed in collaborating. Communication ability is defined in this thesis as the skill that compensates for the inherent leanness of the medium used. A number of depictions of factors contributing to successful asynchronous collaboration are provided. Different classes of information and time, trust and communication ability assist in constructing meaning when text is communicated electronically. This led to suggestions regarding improving the communications ability of individuals. / Dissertation (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Informatics / unrestricted

Background: Although there is extensive evidence for the efficacy of online eating disorder (ED) prevention programs in clinical trials, these programs have rarely been adopted beyond the trial phase and offered to a wider audience. As risk factors for eating disorders are partly associated with overweight and overweight in turn is correlated to disordered eating, this study will offer a combined eating disorder prevention program which also promotes a balanced lifestyle to normal weight and overweight individuals alike. The efficacy of the program has been proven in previous trials. The study aims to evaluate the dissemination of a combined eating disorder prevention and health promotion program (everyBody) to women of all age groups and varying levels of ED risk status in the general population. Methods: A dissemination trial will be conducted in German-speaking countries, including 4160 women from the general population. Participants will be screened to exclude participants who are likely to have an ED. Eligible participants will be allocated to one of five program arms based on their BMI and respective ED symptoms. The guided program consists of 4 to 12 weeks of weekly sessions offering CBT-based exercises, psychoeducational material, self-monitoring, and group discussions. Outcomes will be assessed according to the RE-AIM model, including measures of effectiveness, reach, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of the program. Discussion/conclusions: This trial aims to disseminate a combined ED prevention and health promotion program in the general population, offering universal, selective and indicated prevention in one program. To our knowledge, it is the first trial to systematically evaluate dissemination efforts based on the RE-AIM model. This trial will be conducted as part of the EU-funded ICare (Integrating Technology into Mental Health Care Delivery in Europe) project.

PURPOSE: This study examined medication use by individuals with tinnitus who were seeking help for their tinnitus by means of a psychological intervention. METHOD: This study used a cross-sectional survey design and included individuals with tinnitus enrolled in an Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy trial ( = 439). Study participants provided demographic details, completed various structured questionnaires and provided details about the medications used. The self-reported medications were classified using the United States Pharmacopeial Medicare Model Guidelines v7.0. RESULTS: Current medication use was reported by 67% ( = 293) of the study participants. Those currently using medication were older; had consulted their primary care physician, had greater tinnitus severity, depression, anxiety, and insomnia when compared with those not reporting any current medication use. The top 10 medication used included cardiovascular agents ( = 162; 55.3%), antidepressants ( = 80; 27.3%), electrolytes/minerals/metals/vitamins ( = 70; 23.9%), respiratory tract/pulmonary agents ( = 62; 21.2%), anxiolytics ( = 59; 20.1%), hormonal agents/stimulant/replacement/modifying (thyroid; = 45; 15.4%), gastrointestinal agents ( = 43; 14.7%), analgesics ( = 33; 11.3%), blood glucose regulators ( = 32; 10.9%), and anticonvulsants ( = 26; 8.87%). Some associations between type of medication used and demographic or tinnitus-related variables were noted especially for the cardiovascular agents, electrolytes/minerals/metals/vitamins, and anxiolytics. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study indicated a large percentage of patients using medication and a range of medications. Further studies are required to assess the effects of such medications on the tinnitus percept and concurrent medication moderate treatment effects.

No description available.