Impact of zooming and enhancing Region of Interests for optimizing user experience on mobile sports video

In mobile videos, small viewing size and bitrate limitation often cause unpleasant viewing experiences, which is particularly important for fast-moving sports videos. For optimizing the overall user experience of viewing sports videos on mobile phones, this paper explores the benefits of emphasizing Region of Interest (ROI) by 1) zooming in and 2) enhancing the quality. The main goal is to measure the effectiveness of these two approaches and determine which one is more effective. To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the overall user experience, the study considers user’s interest in video content and user’s acceptance of the perceived video quality, and compares the user experience in sports videos with other content types such as talk shows. The results from a user study with 40 subjects demonstrate that zooming and ROI-enhancement are both effective in improving the overall user experience with talk show and mid-shot soccer videos. However, for the full-shot scenes in soccer videos, only zooming is effective while ROI-enhancement has a negative effect. Moreover, user’s interest in video content directly affects not only the user experience and the acceptance of video quality, but also the effect of content type on the user experience. Finally, the overall user experience is closely related to the degree of the acceptance of video quality and the degree of the interest in video content. This study is valuable in exploiting effective approaches to improve user experience, especially in mobile sports video streaming contexts, whereby the available bandwidth is usually low or limited. It also provides further understanding of the influencing factors of user experience.

A survey on usage of mobile video in Australia

The growth of powerful entertainment functions of mobile devices, in particular mobile video, has recently attracted much attention. Studies on mobile TV, one form of mobile video, have been conducted in many countries. However, little research focuses on the holistic usage of mobile video. To understand the features of such usage, we conducted an online survey in Brisbane, Australia, during the first half of 2010. Our findings reveal similarities and diversities between usage of mobile TV in particular and mobile video on the whole. The results could aid in improving the design of future studies, with a view to ultimately increase user satisfaction.

Keeping in constant touch : the predictors of young Australians’ mobile phone involvement

Little is known about the psychological underpinnings of young people’s mobile phone behaviour. In the present research, 292 young Australians, aged 16–24 years, completed an online survey assessing the effects of self-identity, in-group norm, the need to belong, and self-esteem on their frequency of mobile phone use and mobile phone involvement, conceptualised as people’s degree of cognitive and behavioural association with their mobile phone. Structural equation modelling revealed that age (younger) and self-identity significantly predicted the frequency of mobile phone use. In contrast, age (younger), gender (female), self-identity and in-group norm predicted young people’s mobile phone involvement. Neither self-esteem nor the need to belong significantly predicted mobile phone behaviour. The present study contributes to our understanding of this phenomenon and provides an indication of the characteristics of young people who may become highly involved with their mobile phone.

The role of non-factorizability in determining "pseudo-classical" non-separability

This article introduces a “pseudo classical” notion of modelling non-separability. This form of non-separability can be viewed as lying between separability and quantum-like non-separability. Non-separability is formalized in terms of the non-factorizabilty of the underlying joint probability distribution. A decision criterium for determining the non-factorizability of the joint distribution is related to determining the rank of a matrix as well as another approach based on the chi-square-goodness-of-fit test. This pseudo-classical notion of non-separability is discussed in terms of quantum games and concept combinations in human cognition.

Channel-aware routing in MANETs with route handoff

In wireless mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), packet transmission is impaired by radio link fluctuations. This paper proposes a novel channel adaptive routing protocol which extends the Ad-hoc On-Demand Multipath Distance Vector routing protocol (AOMDV) to accommodate channel fading. Specifically, the proposed Channel Aware AOMDV (CA-AOMDV) uses the channel average non-fading duration as a routing metric to select stable links for path discovery, and applies a preemptive handoff strategy to maintain reliable connections by exploiting channel state information. Using the same information, paths can be reused when they become available again, rather than being discarded. We provide new theoretical results for the downtime and lifetime of a live-die-live multiple path system, as well as detailed theoretical expressions for common network performance measures, providing useful insights into the differences in performance between CA-AOMDV and AOMDV. Simulation and theoretical results show that CA-AOMDV has greatly improved network performance over AOMDV.

Differences in Treatment and Management of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Patients Presenting with Chest Pain: Results of the Heart Protection Partnership (HPP) Study

BACKGROUND: Indigenous patients with acute coronary syndromes represent a high-risk group. There are however few contemporary datasets addressing differences in the presentation and management of Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients with chest pain. METHODS: The Heart Protection Project, is a multicentre retrospective audit of consecutive medical records from patients presenting with chest pain. Patients were identified as Indigenous or non-Indigenous, and time to presentation and cardiac investigations as well as rates of cardiac investigations and procedures were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Of the 2380 patients included, 199 (8.4%) identified as Indigenous, and 2174 (91.6%) as non-Indigenous. Indigenous patients were younger, had higher rates hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, smoking, known coronary artery disease and a lower rate of prior PCI; and were significantly less likely to have private health insurance, be admitted to an interventional facility or to have a cardiologist as primary physician. Following adjustment for difference in baseline characteristics, Indigenous patients had comparable rates of cardiac investigations and delay times to presentation and investigations. CONCLUSIONS: Although the Indigenous population was identified as a high-risk group, in this analysis of selected Australian hospitals there were no significant differences in treatment or management of Indigenous patients in comparison to non-Indigenous.

Using TAM to examine consumer acceptance of a mobile phone assisted smoking cessation program in Australia

This paper study examines Australian smokers’ perceptions of a potential SMS-assisted smoking cessation program. Using TAM we tested perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and subjective norms on intentions to use this cessation program if it was available. Findings show that perceived usefulness and subjective norms were the significant predictors of intentions to use. Perceived ease of use did not directly influence this outcome instead it has an indirect influence through perceived usefulness. These preliminary findings can be built upon through introducing additional variables to help practitioners better understand consumer acceptance when marketing e-health programs such as this.

Interaction, privacy and profiling considerations in local mobile social software : a prototype agile ride share system

Agile ridesharing aims to utilise the capability of social networks and mobile phones to facilitate people to share vehicles and travel in real time. However the application of social networking technologies in local communities to address issues of personal transport faces significant design challenges. In this paper we describe an iterative design-based approach to exploring this problem and discuss findings from the use of an early prototype. The findings focus upon interaction, privacy and profiling. Our early results suggest that explicitly entering information such as ride data and personal profile data into formal fields for explicit computation of matches, as is done in many systems, may not be the best strategy. It might be preferable to support informal communication and negotiation with text search techniques.

Prospective, non-randomized phase 2 clinical trial of carboplatin plus paclitaxel with sequential radical pelvic radiotherapy for uterine papillary serous carcinoma

Objective Uterine Papillary Serous Carcinoma (UPSC) is uncommon and accounts for less than 5% of all uterine cancers. Therefore the majority of evidence about the benefits of adjuvant treatment comes from retrospective case series. We conducted a prospective multi-centre non-randomized phase 2 clinical trial using four cycles of adjuvant paclitaxel plus carboplatin chemotherapy followed by pelvic radiotherapy, in order to evaluate the tolerability and safety of this approach. Methods This trial enrolled patients with newly diagnosed, previously untreated patients with stage 1b-4 (FIGO-1988) UPSC with a papillary serous component of at least 30%. Paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) and carboplatin (AUC 6) were administered on day 1 of each 3-week cycle for 4 cycles. Chemotherapy was followed by external beam radiotherapy to the whole pelvis (50.4 Gy over 5.5 weeks). Completion and toxicity of treatment (Common Toxicity Criteria, CTC) and quality of life measures were the primary outcome indicators. Results Twenty-nine of 31 patients completed treatment as planned. Dose reduction was needed in 9 patients (29%), treatment delay in 7 (23%), and treatment cessation in 2 patients (6.5%). Hematologic toxicity, grade 3 or 4 occurred in 19% (6/31) of patients. Patients' self-reported quality of life remained stable throughout treatment. Thirteen of the 29 patients with stages 1–3 disease (44.8%) recurred (average follow up 28.1 months, range 8–60 months). Conclusion This multimodal treatment is feasible, safe and tolerated reasonably well and would be suitable for use in multi-institutional prospective randomized clinical trials incorporating novel therapies in patients with UPSC.

Assessment of the influence of cultural barriers to HDR supervision of non-English speaking background (NESD) students in engineering and information technology (IT) disciplines

The paper details the results of the first phase of an on-going research into the sociocultural factors that influence the supervision of higher degrees research (HDR) engineering students in the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering (BEE) and Faculty of Science and Technology (FaST) at Queensland University of Technology. A quantitative analysis was performed on the results from an online survey that was administered to 179 engineering students. The study reveals that cultural barriers impact their progression and developing confidence in their research programs. We argue that in order to assist international and non-English speaking background (NESB) research students to triumph over such culturally embedded challenges in engineering research, it is important for supervisors to understand this cohort's unique pedagogical needs and develop intercultural sensitivity in their pedagogical practice in postgraduate research supervision. To facilitate this, the governing body (Office of Research) can play a vital role in not only creating the required support structures but also their uniform implementation across the board.

Near infrared for non-destructive testing of articular cartilage

The concept of non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials and structures is of immense importance in engineering and medicine. Several NDT methods including electromagnetic (EM)-based e.g. X-ray and Infrared; ultrasound; and S-waves have been proposed for medical applications. This paper evaluates the viability of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, an EM method for rapid non-destructive evaluation of articular cartilage. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the NIR spectrum and the physical and mechanical characteristics of articular cartilage such as thickness, stress and stiffness. Intact, visually normal cartilage-on-bone plugs from 2-3yr old bovine patellae were exposed to NIR light from a diffuse reflectance fibre-optic probe and tested mechanically to obtain their thickness, stress, and stiffness. Multivariate statistical analysis-based predictive models relating articular cartilage NIR spectra to these characterising parameters were developed. Our results show that there is a varying degree of correlation between the different parameters and the NIR spectra of the samples with R2 varying between 65 and 93%. We therefore conclude that NIR can be used to determine, nondestructively, the physical and functional characteristics of articular cartilage.

How do we reach them? Comparing random samples from mobile and landline phones

Quantitative studies of nascent entrepreneurs such as GEM and PSED are required to generate their samples by screening the adult population, usually by phone in developed economies. Phone survey research has recently been challenged by shifting patterns of ownership and response rates of landline versus mobile (cell) phones, particularly for younger respondents. This challenge is acutely intense for entrepreneurship which is a strongly age-dependent phenomenon. Although shifting ownership rates have received some attention, shifting response rates have remained largely unexplored. For the Australian GEM 2010 adult population study we conducted a dual-frame approach that allows comparison between samples of mobile and landline phones. We find a substantial response bias towards younger, male and metropolitan respondents for mobile phones – far greater than explained by ownership rates. We also found these response rate differences significantly biases the estimates of the prevalence of early stage entrepreneurship by both samples, even when each sample is weighted to match the Australian population.

Modal parameter estimation in the presence of non-linearities

This paper investigates the use of time-frequency techniques to assist in the estimation of power system modes which are resolvable by a Digital Fourier Transform (DFT). The limitations of linear estimation techniques in the presence of large disturbances which excite system non-linearities, particularly the swing equation non-linearity are shown. Where a nonlinearity manifests itself as time varying modal frequencies the Wigner-Ville Distribution (WVD) is used to describe the variation in modal frequencies and construct a window over which standard linear estimation techniques can be used. The error obtained even in the presence of multiple resolvable modes is better than 2%.

Enhancing pathways for ACE learners : Building the capacity of Adult and Community Education (ACE) providers to offer non-accredited courses and VET modules with pathways into VET programs.

This report presents findings from a project that considered a) the current capacity of Adult and Community Education (ACE) providers to offer non-accredited courses and single modules of accredited learning that provide pathways into full scale accredited VET programs, and b) the factors that aid and inhibit this from occurring. Based on the findings, suggestions are made as to what needs to be done to extend this capacity and thereby to achieve the goals outlined in the 2008 Ministerial Declaration on Adult Community Education.