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.

Quality-aware business process management

Business Process Management (BPM) has emerged as a popular management approach in both Information Technology (IT) and management practice. While there has been much research on business process modelling and the BPM life cycle, there has been little attention given to managing the quality of a business process during its life cycle. This study addresses this gap by providing a framework for organisations to manage the quality of business processes during different phases of the BPM life cycle. This study employs a multi-method research design which is based on the design science approach and the action research methodology. During the design science phase, the artifacts to model a quality-aware business process were developed. These artifacts were then evaluated through three cycles of action research which were conducted within three large Australian-based organisations. This study contributes to the body of BPM knowledge in a number of ways. Firstly, it presents a quality-aware BPM life cycle that provides a framework on how quality can be incorporated into a business process and subsequently managed during the BPM life cycle. Secondly, it provides a framework to capture and model quality requirements of a business process as a set of measurable elements that can be incorporated into the business process model. Finally, it proposes a novel root cause analysis technique for determining the causes of quality issues within business processes.

Determining a set of surrogate parameters to evaluate urban stormwater quality

This thesis details methodology to estimate urban stormwater quality based on a set of easy to measure physico-chemical parameters. These parameters can be used as surrogate parameters to estimate other key water quality parameters. The key pollutants considered in this study are nitrogen compounds, phosphorus compounds and solids. The use of surrogate parameter relationships to evaluate urban stormwater quality will reduce the cost of monitoring and so that scientists will have added capability to generate a large amount of data for more rigorous analysis of key urban stormwater quality processes, namely, pollutant build-up and wash-off. This in turn will assist in the development of more stringent stormwater quality mitigation strategies. The research methodology was based on a series of field investigations, laboratory testing and data analysis. Field investigations were conducted to collect pollutant build-up and wash-off samples from residential roads and roof surfaces. Past research has identified that these impervious surfaces are the primary pollutant sources to urban stormwater runoff. A specially designed vacuum system and rainfall simulator were used in the collection of pollutant build-up and wash-off samples. The collected samples were tested for a range of physico-chemical parameters. Data analysis was conducted using both univariate and multivariate data analysis techniques. Analysis of build-up samples showed that pollutant loads accumulated on road surfaces are higher compared to the pollutant loads on roof surfaces. Furthermore, it was found that the fraction of solids smaller than 150 ìm is the most polluted particle size fraction in solids build-up on both roads and roof surfaces. The analysis of wash-off data confirmed that the simulated wash-off process adopted for this research agrees well with the general understanding of the wash-off process on urban impervious surfaces. The observed pollutant concentrations in wash-off from road surfaces were different to pollutant concentrations in wash-off from roof surfaces. Therefore, firstly, the identification of surrogate parameters was undertaken separately for roads and roof surfaces. Secondly, a common set of surrogate parameter relationships were identified for both surfaces together to evaluate urban stormwater quality. Surrogate parameters were identified for nitrogen, phosphorus and solids separately. Electrical conductivity (EC), total organic carbon (TOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), total solids (TS) and turbidity (TTU) were selected as the relatively easy to measure parameters. Consequently, surrogate parameters for nitrogen and phosphorus were identified from the set of easy to measure parameters for both road surfaces and roof surfaces. Additionally, surrogate parameters for TSS, TDS and TS which are key indicators of solids were obtained from EC and TTU which can be direct field measurements. The regression relationships which were developed for surrogate parameters and key parameter of interest were of a similar format for road and roof surfaces, namely it was in the form of simple linear regression equations. The identified relationships for road surfaces were DTN-TDS:DOC, TP-TS:TOC, TSS-TTU, TDS-EC and TSTTU: EC. The identified relationships for roof surfaces were DTN-TDS and TSTTU: EC. Some of the relationships developed had a higher confidence interval whilst others had a relatively low confidence interval. The relationships obtained for DTN-TDS, DTN-DOC, TP-TS and TS-EC for road surfaces demonstrated good near site portability potential. Currently, best management practices are focussed on providing treatment measures for stormwater runoff at catchment outlets where separation of road and roof runoff is not found. In this context, it is important to find a common set of surrogate parameter relationships for road surfaces and roof surfaces to evaluate urban stormwater quality. Consequently DTN-TDS, TS-EC and TS-TTU relationships were identified as the common relationships which are capable of providing measurements of DTN and TS irrespective of the surface type.

The effect of national governance codes on firm disclosure practices : evidence from analyst earnings forecasts

This study examines whether voluntary national governance codes have a significant effect on company disclosure practices. Two direct effects of the codes are expected: 1) an overall improvement in company disclosure practices, which is greater when the codes have a greater emphasis on disclosure; and 2) a leveling out of disclosure practices across companies (i.e., larger improvements in companies that were previously poorer disclosers) due to the codes new comply-or-explain requirements. The codes are also expected to have an indirect effect on disclosure practices through their effect on company governance practices. The results show that the introduction of the codes in eight East Asian countries has been associated with lower analyst forecast error and a leveling out of disclosure practices across companies. The codes are also found to have an indirect effect on company disclosure practices through their effect on board independence. This study shows that a regulatory approach to improving disclosure practices is not always necessary. Voluntary national governance codes are found to have both a significant direct effect and a significant indirect effect on company disclosure practices. In addition, the results indicate that analysts in Asia do react to changes in disclosure practices, so there is an incentive for small companies and family-owned companies to further improve their disclosure practices.

Robust estimation of tear film surface quality in lateral shearing interferometry

Interferometry is a sensitive technique for recording tear film surface irregularities in a noninvasive manner. At the same time, the technique is hindered by natural eye movements resulting in measurement noise. Estimating tear film surface quality from interferograms can be reduced to a spatial-average-localized weighted estimate of the first harmonic of the interference fringes. However, previously reported estimation techniques proved to perform poorly in cases where the pattern fringes were significantly disturbed. This can occur in cases of measuring tear film surface quality on a contact lens on the eye or in a dry eye. We present a new estimation technique for extracting the first harmonic from the interference fringes that combines the traditional spectral estimation techniques with morphological image processing techniques. The proposed technique proves to be more robust to changes in interference fringes caused by natural eye movements and the degree of dryness of the contact lens and corneal surfaces than its predecessors, resulting in tear film surface quality estimates that are less noisy

Measuring building quality of shopping centres in Surabaya by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Quality has been an important factor for shopping centers in competitive conditions. However, quality measurement has no standard. In Surabaya, only two regional shopping centers will be measured in this research. The objective is assessing quality of shopping centers building using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and calculating the Building Quality Index. An overall ranking of Hierarchy priorities of quality criteria founded as a result from AHP analysis. Access and Circulation became the highest priority in affecting quality of shopping centers building according to respondents’ perception of quality. Weightened value as a result from comparison between two shopping centers as follows: Tunjungan Plaza get 0,732 point and Surabaya Plaza get 0,268 point. The first shopping center got higher weight than the second shopping center. The BQI for Tunjungan Plaza is 66% and for Surabaya Plaza is 64%.

Context-Based Modelling of Interferometric Signals for the Assessment of Tear-Film Suface Quality

Modelling of interferometric signals related to tear film surface quality is considered. In the context of tear film surface quality estimation in normal healthy eyes, two clinical parameters are of interest: the build-up time, and the average interblink surface quality. The former is closely related to the signal derivative while the latter to the signal itself. Polynomial signal models, chosen for a particular set of noisy interferometric measurements, can be optimally selected, in some sense, with a range of information criteria such as AIC, MDL, Cp, and CME. Those criteria, however, do not always guarantee that the true derivative of the signal is accurately represented and they often overestimate it. Here, a practical method for judicious selection of model order in a polynomial fitting to a signal is proposed so that the derivative of the signal is adequately represented. The paper highlights the importance of context-based signal modelling in model order selection.

Load sharing and power quality enhanced operation of a distributed microgrid

This paper describes control methods for proper load sharing between parallel converters connected in a microgrid and supplied by distributed generators (DGs). It is assumed that the microgrid spans a large area and it supplies loads in both in grid connected and islanded modes. A control strategy is proposed to improve power quality and proper load sharing in both islanded and grid connected modes. It is assumed that each of the DGs has a local load connected to it which can be unbalanced and/or nonlinear. The DGs compensate the effects of unbalance and nonlinearity of the local loads. Common loads are also connected to the microgrid, which are supplied by the utility grid under normal conditions. However during islanding, each of the DGs supplies its local load and shares the common load through droop characteristics. Both impedance and motor loads are considered to verify the system response. The efficacy of the controller has been validated through simulation for various operating conditions using PSCAD. It has been found through simulation that the total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the of the microgrid voltage is about 10% and the negative and zero sequence component are around 20% of the positive sequence component before compensation. After compensation, the THD remain below 0.5%, whereas, negative and zero sequence components of the voltages remain below 0.02% of the positive sequence component.

Building the toolkit of quality monitoring clinical outcomes as a means of assessing quality in residential care

Residential aged care in Australia does not have a system of quality assessment related to clinical outcomes, creating a significant gap in quality monitoring. Clinical outcomes represent the results of all inputs into care, thus providing an indication of the success of those inputs. To fill this gap, an assessment tool based on resident outcomes (the ResCareQA) was developed and evaluated in collaboration with residential care providers. A useful output of the ResCareQA is a profile of resident clinical status, and this paper will use such outputs to present a snapshot of nine residential facilities. Such comprehensive data has not yet been available within Australia, so this will provide an important insight. ResCareQA data was collected from all residents (N=498) of nine aged care facilities from two major aged care providers. For each facility, numerator–denominator data were calculated to assess the degree of potential clinical problems. Results varied across clinical areas and across facilities, and rank-ordered facility results for selected clinical areas are reviewed and discussed. Use of the ResCareQA to generate clinical outcome data provides a concrete means of monitoring care quality within residential facilities; regular use of the ResCareQA could thus contribute to improved care outcomes within residential aged care.

Improving quality management system implementation in Indonesian construction firms : a research project

This paper has two main sections, the first of which presents a summarized review of the literature concerning previous studies on the implementation of ISO 9000 quality management systems (QMSs) both in global construction companies as well as in Indonesian construction firms, and the perceived correlation between organisational culture and QMS practices in the construction sector. The first section of the paper contributes to the development of the second section, which presents details of the research project being undertaken. Based on the fundamental questions that led to the development of the main research objectives, suitable research methods have been developed in order to meet these objectives. Primary data will be collected by use of a mixed methods approach, i.e., questionnaire surveys and focus group discussions/interviews in order to obtain opinions from respondents drawn from targeted ISO construction firms. Most of the data expected to be obtained will be in future be analyzed using statistical software then the findings will be discussed in order to ultimately develop a culture-based QMS framework.