Project management deployment : the role of cultural factors

This paper investigates the role of cultural factors as possible partial explanation of the disparity in terms of Project Management Deployment observed between various studied countries. The topic of culture has received increasing attention in the management literature in general during the last decades and in the Project Management literature in particular during the last few years. The globalization of businesses and worldwide Governmental / International organizations collaborations drives this interest in the national culture to increase more and more. Based on Hofstede national culture framework, the study hypothesizes and tests the impact of the culture and development of the country on the PM Deployment. 74 countries are selected to conduct a correlation and regression analysis between Hofstede’s national culture dimensions and the used PM Deployment indicator. The results show the relations between various national culture dimensions and development indicator (GDP/Capita) on the Project Management Deployment levels of the considered countries.

Using mobile social media and GIS in health and place research

This paper presents new research methods that combine the use of location-based, social media on mobile phones with geographic information systems (GIS) to explore connections between people, place and health. It discusses the feasibility, limitations, and benefits of using these methods, which enable real-time, location-based, quantitative data to be collected on the recreation, consumption, and physical activity patterns of urban residents in Brisbane, Queensland. The study employs mechanisms already inherent in popular mobile social media applications (Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare) to collect this data. The research methods presented in this paper are innovative and potentially applicable to an increasing number of academic research areas, as well as to a growing range of service providers that benefit from monitoring consumer behaviour, and responding to emerging changes in these patterns and trends. The ability to both collect and map objective, real-time data about the consumption, leisure, recreation, and physical activity patterns amongst urban communities has direct implications for a range of research disciplines including media studies, advertising, health promotion, social marketing, public health inequalities, and urban design.

Development of distributed fuzzy systems with a runtime-adaptable mobile components framework

A distributed fuzzy system is a real-time fuzzy system in which the input, output and computation may be located on different networked computing nodes. The ability for a distributed software application, such as a distributed fuzzy system, to adapt to changes in the computing network at runtime can provide real-time performance improvement and fault-tolerance. This paper introduces an Adaptable Mobile Component Framework (AMCF) that provides a distributed dataflow-based platform with a fine-grained level of runtime reconfigurability. The execution location of small fragments (possibly as little as few machine-code instructions) of an AMCF application can be moved between different computing nodes at runtime. A case study is included that demonstrates the applicability of the AMCF to a distributed fuzzy system scenario involving multiple physical agents (such as autonomous robots). Using the AMCF, fuzzy systems can now be developed such that they can be distributed automatically across multiple computing nodes and are adaptable to runtime changes in the networked computing environment. This provides the opportunity to improve the performance of fuzzy systems deployed in scenarios where the computing environment is resource-constrained and volatile, such as multiple autonomous robots, smart environments and sensor networks.

Outdoor sensornet design and deployment : experiences from a sugar farm

A wireless sensor network collected real-time water-quality measurements to investigate how current irrigation practices—in particular, underground water salination—affect the environment. New protocols provided high end-to-end packet delivery rates in the hostile deployment environment.

Noise detectives : design implications for mobile learning

In this paper, we present an account of children's interactions with a mobile technology prototype within the school context. The noise detectives trial was conducted in a school setting with the aim of better understanding the role of mobile resources as mediators within science and environmental learning activities. Over 80 children, aged between 10 and 12, completed an outdoor data-gathering activity, using a mobile learning prototype that included paper and software components. They measured and recorded noise levels in various locations throughout the school. We analysed the activity to determine how the components of the prototype were integrated into the learning activity, and to identify differences in behaviour that resulted from using these components. We present design implications that resulted from observed differences in prototype use and appropriation.

Secure authentication procedure with mobile device for ubiquitous health environments

Medical industries have brought Information Technology (IT) in their systems for both patients and medical staffs due to the numerous benefits of IT we experience at presently. Moreover, the Mobile healthcare (M-health) system has been developed as the first step of Ubiquitous Health Environment (UHE). With the mobility and multi-functions, M-health system will be able to provide more efficient and various services for both doctors and patients. Due to the invisible feature of mobile signals, hackers have easier access to hospital networks than wired network systems. This may result in several security incidents unless security protocols are well implemented. In this paper, user authentication and authorization procedures will applied as a featured component at each level of M-health systems inthe hospital environment. Accordingly, M-health system in the hospital will meet the optimal requirements as a countermeasure to its vulnerabilities.

Experimental studies of wireless communication and GNSS kinematic positioning performance in high-mobility vehicle environments

In order to support intelligent transportation system (ITS) road safety applications such as collision avoidance, lane departure warnings and lane keeping, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) based vehicle positioning system has to provide lane-level (0.5 to 1 m) or even in-lane-level (0.1 to 0.3 m) accurate and reliable positioning information to vehicle users. However, current vehicle navigation systems equipped with a single frequency GPS receiver can only provide road-level accuracy at 5-10 meters. The positioning accuracy can be improved to sub-meter or higher with the augmented GNSS techniques such as Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) which have been traditionally used in land surveying and or in slowly moving environment. In these techniques, GNSS corrections data generated from a local or regional or global network of GNSS ground stations are broadcast to the users via various communication data links, mostly 3G cellular networks and communication satellites. This research aimed to investigate the precise positioning system performances when operating in the high mobility environments. This involves evaluation of the performances of both RTK and PPP techniques using: i) the state-of-art dual frequency GPS receiver; and ii) low-cost single frequency GNSS receiver. Additionally, this research evaluates the effectiveness of several operational strategies in reducing the load on data communication networks due to correction data transmission, which may be problematic for the future wide-area ITS services deployment. These strategies include the use of different data transmission protocols, different correction data format standards, and correction data transmission at the less-frequent interval. A series of field experiments were designed and conducted for each research task. Firstly, the performances of RTK and PPP techniques were evaluated in both static and kinematic (highway with speed exceed 80km) experiments. RTK solutions achieved the RMS precision of 0.09 to 0.2 meter accuracy in static and 0.2 to 0.3 meter in kinematic tests, while PPP reported 0.5 to 1.5 meters in static and 1 to 1.8 meter in kinematic tests by using the RTKlib software. These RMS precision values could be further improved if the better RTK and PPP algorithms are adopted. The tests results also showed that RTK may be more suitable in the lane-level accuracy vehicle positioning. The professional grade (dual frequency) and mass-market grade (single frequency) GNSS receivers were tested for their performance using RTK in static and kinematic modes. The analysis has shown that mass-market grade receivers provide the good solution continuity, although the overall positioning accuracy is worse than the professional grade receivers. In an attempt to reduce the load on data communication network, we firstly evaluate the use of different correction data format standards, namely RTCM version 2.x and RTCM version 3.0 format. A 24 hours transmission test was conducted to compare the network throughput. The results have shown that 66% of network throughput reduction can be achieved by using the newer RTCM version 3.0, comparing to the older RTCM version 2.x format. Secondly, experiments were conducted to examine the use of two data transmission protocols, TCP and UDP, for correction data transmission through the Telstra 3G cellular network. The performance of each transmission method was analysed in terms of packet transmission latency, packet dropout, packet throughput, packet retransmission rate etc. The overall network throughput and latency of UDP data transmission are 76.5% and 83.6% of TCP data transmission, while the overall accuracy of positioning solutions remains in the same level. Additionally, due to the nature of UDP transmission, it is also found that 0.17% of UDP packets were lost during the kinematic tests, but this loss doesn't lead to significant reduction of the quality of positioning results. The experimental results from the static and the kinematic field tests have also shown that the mobile network communication may be blocked for a couple of seconds, but the positioning solutions can be kept at the required accuracy level by setting of the Age of Differential. Finally, we investigate the effects of using less-frequent correction data (transmitted at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 seconds interval) on the precise positioning system. As the time interval increasing, the percentage of ambiguity fixed solutions gradually decreases, while the positioning error increases from 0.1 to 0.5 meter. The results showed the position accuracy could still be kept at the in-lane-level (0.1 to 0.3 m) when using up to 20 seconds interval correction data transmission.

An implicit RBF meshless method for a fractal mobile/immobile transport model

Fractional differential equation is used to describe a fractal model of mobile/immobile transport with a power law memory function. This equation is the limiting equation that governs continuous time random walks with heavy tailed random waiting times. In this paper, we firstly propose a finite difference method to discretize the time variable and obtain a semi-discrete scheme. Then we discuss its stability and convergence. Secondly we consider a meshless method based on radial basis functions (RBF) to discretize the space variable. By contrast to conventional FDM and FEM, the meshless method is demonstrated to have distinct advantages: calculations can be performed independent of a mesh, it is more accurate and it can be used to solve complex problems. Finally the convergence order is verified from a numerical example is presented to describe the fractal model of mobile/immobile transport process with different problem domains. The numerical results indicate that the present meshless approach is very effective for modeling and simulating of fractional differential equations, and it has good potential in development of a robust simulation tool for problems in engineering and science that are governed by various types of fractional differential equations.

Numerical analysis of the time variable fractional order mobile-immobile advection-dispersion model

Many physical processes exhibit fractional order behavior that varies with time or space. The continuum of order in the fractional calculus allows the order of the fractional operator to be considered as a variable. In this paper, we consider the time variable fractional order mobile-immobile advection-dispersion model. Numerical methods and analyses of stability and convergence for the fractional partial differential equations are quite limited and difficult to derive. This motivates us to develop efficient numerical methods as well as stability and convergence of the implicit numerical methods for the fractional order mobile immobile advection-dispersion model. In the paper, we use the Coimbra variable time fractional derivative which is more efficient from the numerical standpoint and is preferable for modeling dynamical systems. An implicit Euler approximation for the equation is proposed and then the stability of the approximation are investigated. As for the convergence of the numerical scheme we only consider a special case, i.e. the time fractional derivative is independent of time variable t. The case where the time fractional derivative depends both the time variable t and the space variable x will be considered in the future work. Finally, numerical examples are provided to show that the implicit Euler approximation is computationally efficient.

Mobile multimedia : user and technology perspectives

As multimedia-enabled mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are becoming the day-to-day computing device of choice for users of all ages, everyone expects that all mobile multimedia applications and services should be as smooth and as high-quality as the desktop experience. The grand challenge in delivering multimedia to mobile devices using the Internet is to ensure the quality of experience that meets the users' expectations, within reasonable costs, while supporting heterogeneous platforms and wireless network conditions. This book aims to provide a holistic overview of the current and future technologies used for delivering high-quality mobile multimedia applications, while focusing on user experience as the key requirement. The book opens with a section dealing with the challenges in mobile video delivery as one of the most bandwidth-intensive media that requires smooth streaming and a user-centric strategy to ensure quality of experience. The second section addresses this challenge by introducing some important concepts for future mobile multimedia coding and the network technologies to deliver quality services. The last section combines the user and technology perspectives by demonstrating how user experience can be measured using case studies on urban community interfaces and Internet telephones.

Towards robust night and day place recognition using visible and thermal imaging

The chief challenge facing persistent robotic navigation using vision sensors is the recognition of previously visited locations under different lighting and illumination conditions. The majority of successful approaches to outdoor robot navigation use active sensors such as LIDAR, but the associated weight and power draw of these systems makes them unsuitable for widespread deployment on mobile robots. In this paper we investigate methods to combine representations for visible and long-wave infrared (LWIR) thermal images with time information to combat the time-of-day-based limitations of each sensing modality. We calculate appearance-based match likelihoods using the state-of-the-art FAB-MAP [1] algorithm to analyse loop closure detection reliability across different times of day. We present preliminary results on a dataset of 10 successive traverses of a combined urban-parkland environment, recorded in 2-hour intervals from before dawn to after dusk. Improved location recognition throughout an entire day is demonstrated using the combined system compared with methods which use visible or thermal sensing alone.

Impact of region-of-interest video coding on perceived quality in mobile video

Effective streaming of video can be achieved by providing more bits to the most important region in the frame at the cost of reduced bits in the less important regions. This strategy can be beneficial for delivering high quality videos in mobile devices, especially when the availability of bandwidth is usually low and limited. While the state-of-the-art video codecs such as H.264 may have been optimised for perceived quality, it is hypothesised that users will give more attention to interesting region/object when watching videos. Therefore, giving a higher quality to region of interest (ROI)while reducing quality of other areas may result in improving the overall perceived quality without necessarily increasing the bitrate. In this paper, the impact of ROI-based encoded video on perceived quality is investigated by conducting a user study for varous target bitrates. The results from the user study demonstrate that ROI-based video coding has superior perceived quality compared to normal encoded video at the same bitrate in the lower bitrate range.

Compact arrays for mobile platforms : trade-off between size and performance for SDMA and MIMO applications

Smart antenna receiver and transmitter systems consist of multi-port arrays with an individual receiver channel (including ADC) and an individual transmitter channel (including DAC)at every of the M antenna ports, respectively. By means of digital beamforming, an unlimited number of simultaneous complex-valued vector radiation patterns with M-1 degrees of freedom can be formed. Applications of smart antennas in communication systems include space-division multiple access. If both stations of a communication link are equipped with smart antennas (multiple-input-multiple-output, MIMO). multiple independent channels can be formed in a "multi-path-rich" environment. In this article, it will be shown that under certain circumstances, the correlation between signals from adjacent ports of a dense array (M + ΔM elements) can be kept as low as the correlation between signals from adjacent ports of a conventional array (M elements and half-wavelength pacing). This attractive feature is attained by means of a novel approach which employs a RF decoupling network at the array ports in order to form new ports which are decoupled and associated with mutually orthogonal (de-correlated) radiation patterns.

The use of virtual prototyping to rehearse the sequence of construction work involving mobile cranes

Purpose – Rehearsing practical site operations is without doubt one of the most effective methods for minimising planning mistakes, because of the learning that takes place during the rehearsal activity. However, real rehearsal is not a practical solution for on-site construction activities, as it not only involves a considerable amount of cost but can also have adverse environmental implications. One approach to overcoming this is by the use of virtual rehearsals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate an approach to simulation of the motion of cranes in order to test the feasibility of associated construction sequencing and generate construction schedules for review and visualisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes a system involving two technologies, virtual prototyping (VP) and four-dimensional (4D) simulation, to assist construction planners in testing the sequence of construction activities when mobile cranes are involved. The system consists of five modules, comprising input, database, equipment, process and output, and is capable of detecting potential collisions. A real-world trial is described in which the system was tested and validated. Findings – Feedback from the planners involved in the trial indicated that they found the system to be useful in its present form and that they would welcome its further development into a fully automated platform for validating construction sequencing decisions. Research limitations/implications – The tool has the potential to provide a cost-effective means of improving construction planning. However, it is limited at present to the specific case of crane movement under special consideration. Originality/value – This paper presents a large-scale, real life case of applying VP technology in planning construction processes and activities.