Context exchange between devices in mobile environment

Context awareness is emerging on mobile devices. Context awareness can be used to improve usability of a mobile device. Context awareness is particularly important on mobile devices due the limitations they have. At first in this work, a literature review on context awareness and mobile environment is made. For aiding context awareness there exist an implementation of a Context Framework for Symbian S60 devices. It provides a possibility for exchanging the contexts inside the device between the client applications of the local Context Framework. The main contribution of this thesis is to design and implement an enhancement to the S60 Context Framework for providing possibility to exchange context over device boundaries. Using the implemented Context Exchange System, the context exchange is neither depending on the type of the context nor the type of the client. In addition, the clients and the contexts can reside on any interconnected device. The usage of the system is independent of the programming language since in addition to using only Symbian C++ function interfaces it can also be utilized using XML scripts. The Meeting Sniffer application, which uses the Context Exchange System, was also developed in this work. Using this application, it is possible to recognize a meeting situation and suggest device profile change to a user.

Design and evaluation of learning algorithms for dynamic resource management in virtual networks

Network virtualisation is considerably gaining attentionas a solution to ossification of the Internet. However, thesuccess of network virtualisation will depend in part on how efficientlythe virtual networks utilise substrate network resources.In this paper, we propose a machine learning-based approachto virtual network resource management. We propose to modelthe substrate network as a decentralised system and introducea learning algorithm in each substrate node and substrate link,providing self-organization capabilities. We propose a multiagentlearning algorithm that carries out the substrate network resourcemanagement in a coordinated and decentralised way. The taskof these agents is to use evaluative feedback to learn an optimalpolicy so as to dynamically allocate network resources to virtualnodes and links. The agents ensure that while the virtual networkshave the resources they need at any given time, only the requiredresources are reserved for this purpose. Simulations show thatour dynamic approach significantly improves the virtual networkacceptance ratio and the maximum number of accepted virtualnetwork requests at any time while ensuring that virtual networkquality of service requirements such as packet drop rate andvirtual link delay are not affected.

Swarm Intelligent Selection and Optimization of Machining System Parameters for Microchannel Fabrication in Medical Devices

Current technology trends in medical device industry calls for fabrication of massive arrays of microfeatures such as microchannels on to nonsilicon material substrates with high accuracy, superior precision, and high throughput. Microchannels are typical features used in medical devices for medication dosing into the human body, analyzing DNA arrays or cell cultures. In this study, the capabilities of machining systems for micro-end milling have been evaluated by conducting experiments, regression modeling, and response surface methodology. In machining experiments by using micromilling, arrays of microchannels are fabricated on aluminium and titanium plates, and the feature size and accuracy (width and depth) and surface roughness are measured. Multicriteria decision making for material and process parameters selection for desired accuracy is investigated by using particle swarm optimization (PSO) method, which is an evolutionary computation method inspired by genetic algorithms (GA). Appropriate regression models are utilized within the PSO and optimum selection of micromilling parameters; microchannel feature accuracy and surface roughness are performed. An analysis for optimal micromachining parameters in decision variable space is also conducted. This study demonstrates the advantages of evolutionary computing algorithms in micromilling decision making and process optimization investigations and can be expanded to other applications

Certificate Handling Middleware for Mobile Devices

The purpose of this thesis was to study how certificates could be used to improve security of mobile devices. In the theoretical part the usage of certificates to improve security is explained. In the practical part a concept of certificate handling middleware is introduced and implemented. This is to demonstrate what kind of functionality is needed to provide an improvement over the current situation in security with mobile devices. The certificate handling middleware is a concept that would work better if implemented directly into mobile device's core functionality. Many of the mobile devices have a certificate store to some degree and often it is not used to store other people's certificates. A certificate store combined with address book and added with possibility to add attributes to the people such as group memberships would be sufficient to satisfy the needs of many emerging sharing and social applications.

Construction Plan Image Service for Mobile Devices

The forthcoming media revolution of exchanging paper documents to digital media in construction engineering requires new tools to be developed. The basis of this bachelor’s thesis was to explore the preliminary possibilities of exporting imagery from a Building Information Modelling –software to a mobile phone on a construction yard. This was done by producing a Web Service which uses the design software’s Application Programming Interface to interact with a structures model in order to produce the requested imagery. While mobile phones were found lacking as client devices, because of limited processing power and small displays, the implementation showed that the Tekla Structures API can be used to automatically produce various types of imagery. Web Services can be used to transfer this data to the client. Before further development the needs of the contractor, benefits for the building master and inspector and the full potential of the BIM-software need to be mapped out with surveys.

Mobile learning and video experience in delivering digital content

In recent years, the worldwide distribution of smartphone devices has been growing rapidly. Mobile technologies are evolving fast, a situation which provides new possibilities for mobile learning applications. Along with new delivery methods, this development enables new concepts for learning. This study focuses on the effectiveness and experience of a mobile learning video promoting the key features of a specific device. Through relevant learning theories, mobile technologies and empirical findings, the thesis presents the key elements for a mobile learning video that are essential for effective learning. This study also explores how previous experience with mobile services and knowledge of a mobile handset relate to final learning results. Moreover, this study discusses the optimal delivery mechanisms for a mobile video. The target group for the study consists of twenty employees of a Sanoma Company. The main findings show that the individual experience of learning and the actual learning results may differ and that the design for certain video elements, such as sound and the presentation of technical features, can have an impact on the experience and effectiveness of a mobile learning video. Moreover, a video delivery method based on cloud technologies and HTML5 is suggested to be used in parallel with standalone applications.

Continued Compliance and Degree of Satisfaction in Nulligravida and Parous Women with Intrauterine Contraceptive Devices

Purpose To evaluate the compliance and degree of satisfaction of nulligravida (has not given birth) and parous (had already given birth) women who are using intrauterine devices (IUDs). Methods A cross-sectional cohort study was conducted comparing nulligravida and parous women who had had an IUD inserted between July 2009 and November 2011. A total of 84 nulligravida women and 73 parous women were included. Interviews were conducted with women who agreed to participate through telephone contact. Statistical analysis was performed with Student s t-test and Mann-Whitney test for numeric variables; Pearson s chi-square test to test associations; and, whenever pertinent, Fisher s exact test for categorical variables. A survival curve was constructed to estimate the likelihood of each woman continuing the use of the IUD. A significance level of 5% was established. Results When compared with parous women, nulligravida women had a higher education level (median: 12 vs. 10 years). No statistically significant differences were found between the nulligravida and parous women with respect to information on the use of the IUD, prior use of other contraceptive methods, the reason for having chosen the IUD as the current contraceptive method, reasons for discontinuing the use and adverse effects, compliance, and degree of satisfaction. The two groups did not show any difference in terms of continued use of the IUD (p = 0.4). Conclusion There was no difference in compliance or the degree of satisfaction or continued use of IUDs between nulligravida and parous women, suggesting that IUD use may be recommended for women who have never been pregnant.

Reducing contact resistance in graphene devices

In this thesis, the contact resistance of graphene devices was investigated because high contact resistance is detrimental to the performance of graphene field-effect transistors (GFET). Method for increasing so-called edge-contact area was applied in device fabrication process, as few nanometers thick Ni layer was used as a catalytic etchant during the annealing process. Finally, Ni was also used as a metal for contact. GFETs were fabricated using electron beam lithography using graphene fabricated by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Critical part of the fabrication process was to preserve the high quality of the graphene channel while etching the graphene at contact areas with Ni during the annealing. This was achieved by optimizing the combination of temperature and gas flows. The structural properties of graphene were studied using scanning electron microscopy, scanning confocal μ-Raman spectroscopy and optical microscopy. Evaluation of electric transport properties including contact resistance was carried out by transmission line method and four-probe method. The lowest contact resistance found was about at 350 Ωμm. In addition, different methods to transfer CVD graphene synthesized on copper were studied. Typical method using PMMA as a supporting layer leaves some residues after its removal, thus effecting on the performance of a graphene devices. In a metal assisted transfer method, metal is used as an interfacial layer between PMMA and graphene. This allows more effective removal of PMMA. However, Raman spectra of graphene transferred by metal assisted method showed somewhat lower quality than the PMMA assisted method

Project Resource Management in R&D Public Sector Organization

In R&D organizations multiple projects are executed concurrently. Problems arises in managing shared resources since they are needed by multiple projects simultaneously. The objective of this thesis was to study how the project and resource management could be developed in a public sector R&D organization. The qualitative research was carried out in the Magnetic Measurements section at CERN where the section measures magnets for particle accelerators and builds state of the art measurement devices for various needs. Hence, the R&D and measurement projects are very time consuming and very complex. Based on the previous research and the requirements from the organization the best alter- native for resource management was to build a project management information system. A centralized database was constructed and on top of it was built an application for interacting and visualizing the project data. The application allows handling project data, which works as a basis for resource planning before and during the projects are executed. It is one way to standardize the work-flow of projects, which strengthens the project process. Additionally, it was noted that the inner customer’s database, the measurement system and the new application needed to be integrated. Further integration ensures that the project data is received efficiently from customers and available not only within the application but also during the concrete work. The research results introduced a new integrated application, which centralizes the project information flow with better visibility.

Spectroscopic Studies of III-V Semiconductor Materials for Improved Devices

Defects in semiconductor crystals and at their interfaces usually impair the properties and the performance of devices. These defects include, for example, vacancies (i.e., missing crystal atoms), interstitials (i.e., extra atoms between the host crystal sites), and impurities such as oxygen atoms. The defects can decrease (i) the rate of the radiative electron transition from the conduction band to the valence band, (ii) the amount of charge carriers, and (iii) the mobility of the electrons in the conduction band. It is a common situation that the presence of crystal defects can be readily concluded as a decrease in the luminescence intensity or in the current flow for example. However, the identification of the harmful defects is not straightforward at all because it is challenging to characterize local defects with atomic resolution and identification. Such atomic-scale knowledge is however essential to find methods for reducing the amount of defects in energy-efficient semiconductor devices. The defects formed in thin interface layers of semiconductors are particularly difficult to characterize due to their buried and amorphous structures. Characterization methods which are sensitive to defects often require well-defined samples with long range order. Photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) combined with photoluminescence (PL) or electrical measurements is a potential approach to elucidate the structure and defects of the interface. It is essential to combine the PES with complementary measurements of similar samples to relate the PES changes to changes in the interface defect density. Understanding of the nature of defects related to III-V materials is relevant to developing for example field-effect transistors which include a III-V channel, but research is still far from complete. In this thesis, PES measurements are utilized in studies of various III-V compound semiconductor materials. PES is combined with photoluminescence measurements to study the SiO2/GaAs, SiNx/GaAs and BaO/GaAs interfaces. Also the formation of novel materials InN and photoluminescent GaAs nanoparticles are studied. Finally, the formation of Ga interstitial defects in GaAsN is elucidated by combining calculational results with PES measurements.

A SOA-based Framework for Multi-Devices and Multi-Platform User Interfaces

This thesis reports investigations on applying the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach in the engineering of multi-platform and multi-devices user interfaces. This study has three goals: (1) analyze the present frameworks for developing multi-platform and multi-devices applications, (2) extend the principles of SOA for implementing a multi-platform and multi-devices architectural framework (SOA-MDUI), (3) applying and validating the proposed framework in the context of a specific application. One of the problems addressed in this ongoing research is the large amount of combinations for possible implementations of applications on different types of devices. Usually it is necessary to take into account the operating system (OS), user interface (UI) including the appearance, programming language (PL) and architectural style (AS). Our proposed approach extended the principles of SOA using patterns-oriented design and model-driven engineering approaches. Synthesizing the present work done in these domains, this research built and tested an engineering framework linking Model-driven Architecture (MDA) and SOA approaches to developing of UI. This study advances general understanding of engineering, deploying and managing multi-platform and multi-devices user interfaces as a service.

Evaluation of Machine Learning Classifiers for Mobile Network Intrusion Detection Systems

Mobile malwares are increasing with the growing number of Mobile users. Mobile malwares can perform several operations which lead to cybersecurity threats such as, stealing financial or personal information, installing malicious applications, sending premium SMS, creating backdoors, keylogging and crypto-ransomware attacks. Knowing the fact that there are many illegitimate Applications available on the App stores, most of the mobile users remain careless about the security of their Mobile devices and become the potential victim of these threats. Previous studies have shown that not every antivirus is capable of detecting all the threats; due to the fact that Mobile malwares use advance techniques to avoid detection. A Network-based IDS at the operator side will bring an extra layer of security to the subscribers and can detect many advanced threats by analyzing their traffic patterns. Machine Learning(ML) will provide the ability to these systems to detect unknown threats for which signatures are not yet known. This research is focused on the evaluation of Machine Learning classifiers in Network-based Intrusion detection systems for Mobile Networks. In this study, different techniques of Network-based intrusion detection with their advantages, disadvantages and state of the art in Hybrid solutions are discussed. Finally, a ML based NIDS is proposed which will work as a subsystem, to Network-based IDS deployed by Mobile Operators, that can help in detecting unknown threats and reducing false positives. In this research, several ML classifiers were implemented and evaluated. This study is focused on Android-based malwares, as Android is the most popular OS among users, hence most targeted by cyber criminals. Supervised ML algorithms based classifiers were built using the dataset which contained the labeled instances of relevant features. These features were extracted from the traffic generated by samples of several malware families and benign applications. These classifiers were able to detect malicious traffic patterns with the TPR upto 99.6% during Cross-validation test. Also, several experiments were conducted to detect unknown malware traffic and to detect false positives. These classifiers were able to detect unknown threats with the Accuracy of 97.5%. These classifiers could be integrated with current NIDS', which use signatures, statistical or knowledge-based techniques to detect malicious traffic. Technique to integrate the output from ML classifier with traditional NIDS is discussed and proposed for future work.

ESL students' off-line and on-line texts : differences and similarities /

This study was undertaken to investigate any textual differences and similarities within essays written with a word processing program and an e-mail editor by non-native writers. It arose from many contradictions and a paucity of empirical research within the field of second language learning and electronic technology. To further explore these contradictory observations, 3 classes of intermediate level ESL (English as a Second Language) students v^ote 6 essays, alternating between a word processing program and an e-mail editor. Prior to the data collection, students read brief texts and responded to questions that focused upon three formal topics: immigration, economics, and multiculturalism. Data were examined for (a) the differences in the frequency counts of 12 cohesive devices, (b) sentence complexity, which focused upon the occurrences of simple and complex sentences, (c) the number of words within the writings, (d) the method of contextualization preferred by writers, and (e) any variations in the final grades of the students' texts that resulted from holistic rating. Results of analysis indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in the frequency counts of the linguistic features. Sentence complexity did not vary within the off-line and on-line essays. The average number of words found within the off-line essays was approximately 20% greater than within on-line essays. Contextualization methods were not different within word-processed or e-mailed essays. Finally, there was no difference in the quality of the texts when holistically rated.

Human Resource Training and National Sport Organization Managers: Examining the Impact of Training on Individual and Organizational Performance

Within sport, a tremendous amount of effort is committed to the on-the-field performance of athletes and coaches, neglecting the off-the-field performance and development of sport managers. This study examines the impact of human resource training on the performance of five Canadian national sport organizations (NSO) and their managers (N=22). Data were collected on three outcome variables (learning, individual performance, organizational performance) and three mediating variables (motivation to transfer, training design, organizational climate) at three time measures (pre-training, post-training1, post-training2). Results indicate that training improves the learning and individual performance of sport managers, as well as the organizational performance of NSOs. Varying relationships were found at each of the three time measures, demonstrating that a progression to training-related performance change exists, while providing support for three levels of analysis (individual, organizational, systemic). Implications and future research directions are discussed and highlight the need for on-going training opportunities for Canadian sport managers.

Enhancing Student Learning: Study of a Motivational Resource for Educators

This study surveyed practicing classroom teacher’s perceptions of a proposed educational resource “Avatar Academy” designed to enhance students’, particularly young boys, motivation and general attitude towards learning. The Avatar Academy resource is an instructional guide for implementing a classroom reward system based on common game mechanics. The resource emphasizes the modification of current pedagogies to exploit the use of game design to engage boys. A survey of recent literature indicated an opportunity to study teachers’ perceptions of the possible applications of game design mechanics to support the enhancement of student motivation and learning in the classroom. As a result the Avatar Academy handbook and blog resource were developed to assist teachers with the integration and administration of a program designed to enhance student motivation, especially boys, using avatars and a point based reward system. The resources were initially distributed to several practicing teachers for their review, and their feedback formed the basis for revisions of the Avatar Academy resource. After implementing changes to the resource based on initial teacher feedback, an updated Avatar Academy was redistributed and teacher opinions and perceptions of the tool’s possible impacts on classroom learning were collected.