User-centered video quality assessment for scalable video coding of H.264/AVC standard

Scalable video coding of H.264/AVC standard enables adaptive and flexible delivery for multiple devices and various network conditions. Only a few works have addressed the influence of different scalability parameters (frame rate, spatial resolution, and SNR) on the user perceived quality within a limited scope. In this paper, we have conducted an experiment of subjective quality assessment for video sequences encoded with H.264/SVC to gain a better understanding of the correlation between video content and UPQ at all scalable layers and the impact of rate-distortion method and different scalabilities on bitrate and UPQ. Findings from this experiment will contribute to a user-centered design of adaptive delivery of scalable video stream.

Advertising education in Australia: Looking back to the future

In Australia, advertising is a $13 billion industry which needs a supply of suitably skilled employees. Over the years, advertising education has developed from vocational based courses to degree courses across the country. This paper uses diffusion theory and various secondary sources and interviews to observe the development of advertising education in Australia from its early past, to its current day tertiary offerings, to discussing the issues that are arising in the near future. Six critical issues are identified, along with observations about the challenges and opportunities within Australia advertising education. By looking back to the future, it is hoped that this historical review provides lessons for other countries of similar educational structure or background, or even other marketing communication disciplines on a similar evolutionary path.

The implication of a term of good faith in commercial leases

Much has been written in the past decade on the subject of the implication of a term of good faith in contracts in Australia, particularly since the judgment Priestley JA in Renard Constructions (ME) Pty Ltd v Minister for Public Works (1992) 26 NSWLR 234. Except for an early article by Rachael Mulheron, 'Good Faith and Commercial Leases: New Opportunities for the Tenant' (1996) 4 APLJ 223, very little else has been written with respect to the possible application of the doctrine to the commercial leases.With the advent of two later New South Wales Supreme Court decisions Alcatel Australia Ltd v Scarcella (1998) 44 NSWLR 349 and, more recently, Advance Fitness v Bondi Diggers [1999] NSWSC 264, the question of the application of the doctrine in the commercial leasing context has been examined. This article briefly considers the nature and substance of the doctrine against the background of the relationship of lessor and lessee and examines in some depth the Australian decisions on commercial leases where it has been sought, unsuccessfully, to apply the doctrine. The article concludes by suggesting that as a standard commercial lease usually covers the field of agreement between lessor and lessee and as a lessee has a high degree of statutory protection derived from equitable principles, there may be little room for the operation of the doctrine in this legal environment.

The Dragon stream cipher: Design, analysis and implementation issues

Dragon is a word-based stream cipher. It was submitted to the eSTREAM project in 2005 and has advanced to Phase 3 of the software profile. This paper discusses the Dragon cipher from three perspectives: design, security analysis and implementation. The design of the cipher incorporates a single word-based non-linear feedback shift register and a non-linear filter function with memory. This state is initialized with 128- or 256-bit key-IV pairs. Each clock of the stream cipher produces 64 bits of keystream, using simple operations on 32-bit words. This provides the cipher with a high degree of efficiency in a wide variety of environments, making it highly competitive relative to other symmetric ciphers. The components of Dragon were designed to resist all known attacks. Although the design has been open to public scrutiny for several years, the only published attacks to date are distinguishing attacks which require keystream lengths greatly exceeding the stated 264 bit maximum permitted keystream length for a single key-IV pair.

Navigating iScapes : Australian youth constructing identities and social relations in a network society

This paper extends Appadurai’s notion of “scapes” to delineate what we see as “iScapes”. We contend that iScapes captures the way online technologies shape interactions that invariably filter into offline contexts, giving shape and meaning to human actions and motivations. By drawing on research on high school students’ online activities we examine the flow of iScapes they inhabit in the process of constructing identities and forming social relations.

Challenges in land use planning around Australian airports

The privatization of major Australian airports in the late 1990s unleashed an unprecedented development wave as corporate lessees implemented ambitious business plans. While planning and environmental regulations governing on-airport development were significantly enhanced, there has been national disquiet about a governance regime that remains under the auspices of the federal government and is not effectively integrated into state and local decision-making machinery. Tensions in major airport regions have been exacerbated by the building of highly conspicuous non-aeronautical developments approved with no determining input by local decision-makers as well as the growing pressures on off-airport locations for aviation-related development. This paper canvasses this context and overviews the evolving structure of planning controls for Australia’s privatized federal airports. A range of issues surfacing through the National Aviation Policy Review process in 2008–2009 is described.

Active power flow control in a distribution system using discontinuous voltage controller

stract This paper proposes a hybrid discontinuous control methodology for a voltage source converter (VSC), which is used in an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) application. The UPS controls the voltage at the point of common coupling (PCC). An LC filter is connected at the output of the VSC to bypass switching harmonics. With the help of both filter inductor current and filter capacitor voltage control, the voltage across the filter capacitor is controlled. Based on the voltage error, the control is switched between current and voltage control modes. In this scheme, an extra diode state is used that makes the VSC output current discontinuous. This diode state reduces the switching losses. The UPS controls the active power it supplies to a three-phase, four-wire distribution system. This gives a full flexibility to the grid to buy power from the UPS system depending on its cost and load requirement at any given time. The scheme is validated through simulation using PSCAD.

Creative Commons and the creative industries

This paper explores the growing significance of legal questions to innovation and creative practice in what are now being termed the creative industries. Noting that the case for strong copyright protection as the cornerstone of innovation is highly contested, it explores the significance of Creative Commons licences as an alternative to Digital Rights Management and copyright law. It also introduces the case studies of music, online computer games, and ‘remix culture’ that are covered in this special issue of Media and Arts Law Review.

Implementing the international : challenges and approaches

This paper documents some preliminary findings arising from our Creative Industries Faculty’s invitation to academics to submit suitable proposals for Internationalising the Curriculum, an initiative that aligns with the University’s recognition of the importance of “building international components into their teaching programs” Our research project involves revisiting the literature on internationalising the curriculum with a view to implementing pedagogic and assessment strategies that respect and encourage intercultural and international understandings and competencies. The paper addresses the problems in designing such a unit; in this case an American Literature unit which will be taught and studied in Australia at QUT in 2011. The challenges inherent in the task of internationalising the curriculum stem from the ‘traditional’ and accepted ways of structuring and delivering such units. While the content may be international, the problem remains as to how to go about teaching and assessing the unit to achieve a global approach. How can it be taught in a way that steps outside the borders of our national teaching practices and understanding of western epistemology and becomes far more inclusive of other modes of knowledge?

Theoretical model of user acceptance : in the view of measuring success in web personalization

This paper attempts to develop a theoretical acceptance model for measuring Web personalization success. Key factors impacting Web personalization acceptance are identified from a detailed literature review. The final model is then cast in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework comprising nineteen manifest variables, which are grouped into three focal behaviors of Web users. These variables could provide a framework for better understanding of numerous factors that contribute to the success measures of Web personalization technology. Especially, those concerning the quality of personalized features and how personalized information through personalized Website can be delivered to the user. The interrelationship between success constructs is also explained. Empirical validations of this theoretical model are expected on future research.

Clone detection in repositories of business process models

As organizations reach to higher levels of business process management maturity, they often find themselves maintaining repositories of hundreds or even thousands of process models, representing valuable knowledge about their operations. Over time, process model repositories tend to accumulate duplicate fragments (also called clones) as new process models are created or extended by copying and merging fragments from other models. This calls for methods to detect clones in process models, so that these clones can be refactored as separate subprocesses in order to improve maintainability. This paper presents an indexing structure to support the fast detection of clones in large process model repositories. The proposed index is based on a novel combination of a method for process model decomposition (specifically the Refined Process Structure Tree), with established graph canonization and string matching techniques. Experiments show that the algorithm scales to repositories with hundreds of models. The experimental results also show that a significant number of non-trivial clones can be found in process model repositories taken from industrial practice.

A material model for flexural crack simulation in reinforced concrete elements using ABAQUS

This paper presents a material model to simulate load induced cracking in Reinforced Concrete (RC) elements in ABAQUS finite element package. Two numerical material models are used and combined to simulate complete stress-strain behaviour of concrete under compression and tension including damage properties. Both numerical techniques used in the present material model are capable of developing the stress-strain curves including strain softening regimes only using ultimate compressive strength of concrete, which is easily and practically obtainable for many of the existing RC structures or those to be built. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper is valuable in assessing existing RC structures in the absence of more detailed test results. The numerical models are slightly modified from the original versions to be comparable with the damaged plasticity model used in ABAQUS. The model is validated using different experiment results for RC beam elements presented in the literature. The results indicate a good agreement with load vs. displacement curve and observed crack patterns.