Fuzzy logic control for camera tracking system

A concept utilizing fuzzy theory has been developed for a camera tracking system to provide support for proximity operations and traffic management around the Space Station Freedom. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic based reasoning are used in a control system which utilizes images from a camera and generates required pan and tilt commands to track and maintain a moving target in the camera's field of view. This control system can be implemented on a fuzzy chip to provide an intelligent sensor for autonomous operations. Capabilities of the control system can be expanded to include approach, handover to other sensors, caution and warning messages

Benefits and limitations of text messages to stimulate higher learning among community providers: participants’ views of an mHealth intervention to support continuing medical education in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2015 to evaluate a mobile continuing medical education (mCME) intervention that provided daily text messages to community-based physicians’ assistants (CBPAs) in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam. Although the intervention failed to improve medical knowledge over a 6-month period, a companion qualitative study provided insights on the views and experiences of intervention participants. METHODS: We conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) among participants randomized to receive text messages containing either simple medical facts or quiz questions. Trained interviewers collected data immediately following the conclusion of the trial in December 2015. Using semi-structured question guides, respondents were queried on their views of the intervention, positive and negative, and perceived impacts of the intervention. During analysis, after learning that the intervention had failed to increase knowledge among participants, we also examined reasons for lack of improvement in medical knowledge. All analyses were performed in NVivo using a thematic approach. RESULTS: A total of 70 CBPAs engaged in one of 8 FGDs or an IDI. One-half were men; average age among all respondents was 40 years. Most (81%) practiced in rural settings and most (51%) focused on general medicine. The mean length of work experience was 3 years. All respondents made positive comments about the intervention; convenience, relevance, and quick feedback (quiz format) were praised. Downsides encompassed lack of depth of information, weak interaction, technology challenges, and challenging/irrelevant messages. Respondents described perceived impacts encompassing increased motivation, knowledge, collegial discussions, Internet use to search for more information, and clinical skills. Overall, they expressed a desire for the intervention to continue and recommended expansion to other medical professionals. Overreliance on the text messages, lack of effective self-study, and technical/language-based barriers may be potential explanations for intervention failure. CONCLUSION: As a form of mCME, daily text messages were well-received by community-level health care providers in Vietnam. This mCME approach appears very promising in low-resource environments or where traditional forms of CME are impractical. Future models might consider enhancements to foster linkages to relevant medical materials, improve interaction with medical experts, and tailor medical content to the daily activities of medical staff

Metamodel-based model conformance and multiview consistency checking

Model-driven development, using languages such as UML and BON, often makes use of multiple diagrams (e.g., class and sequence diagrams) when modeling systems. These diagrams, presenting different views of a system of interest, may be inconsistent. A metamodel provides a unifying framework in which to ensure and check consistency, while at the same time providing the means to distinguish between valid and invalid models, that is, conformance. Two formal specifications of the metamodel for an object-oriented modeling language are presented, and it is shown how to use these specifications for model conformance and multiview consistency checking. Comparisons are made in terms of completeness and the level of automation each provide for checking multiview consistency and model conformance. The lessons learned from applying formal techniques to the problems of metamodeling, model conformance, and multiview consistency checking are summarized

Rethinking young children creating and communicating : research briefing 3 for digital childhoods

This briefing paper specifically considers children’s early communicative and creative experiences with digital technologies, addressing the following questions: »» What are children learning about the roles digital technologies play in supporting communication and creativity in their families and communities? »» To what extent are they able to harness these technologies for their own purposes? »» What use will they make of their knowledge and experiences when they start school

The Minimized Face of Internal Communication: An Exploration of How Public Relations Agency Websites Frame Internal Communication and its Connection to Social Media

Internal communication is increasingly vital to organizational success due to the influence of social media, yet it remains understudied within public relations research. Using a qualitative content analysis of 181 websites, this study examines how leading public relations agency websites frame the value of internal communication and its connection to social media. Findings reveal internal communication is largely missing from the frame. When explicitly referenced, it is mostly framed as synonymous with employee communication as a means for management to communicate to employees, though some portrayals are more robust. Websites frame internal communication’s value as enhancing financial outcomes by improving workplace culture, employee engagement, and workers’ willingness to support management’s preferred organization brand or reputation. Social media are disconnected from internal communication and are mostly framed as tools that require additional employee training to use in order to reach external audiences. A handful of agencies urge organizations to include social media and internal stakeholders within the internal communication function. Recommendations are made for future internal communication research and practice

Graphical Analysis of Social Group Dynamics

Identifying communities in social networks becomes an increasingly important research problem. Several methods for identifying such groups have been developed, however, qualitative analysis (taking into account the scale of the problem) still poses serious problems. This paper describes a tool for facilitating such an analysis, allowing to visualize the dynamics and supporting localization of different events (such as creation or merging of groups). In the final part of the paper, the experimental results performed using the benchmark data (Enron emails) provide an insight into usefulness of the proposed tool.Comment: Fourth International Conference on Computational Aspects of Social Networks, CASoN 2012, Sao Carlos, Brazil, November 21-23, 2012, pp. 41-46; IEEE Computer Society, 201

Summarisation and visualisation of e-Health data repositories

At the centre of the Clinical e-Science Framework (CLEF) project is a repository of well organised, detailed clinical histories, encoded as data that will be available for use in clinical care and in-silico medical experiments. We describe a system that we have developed as part of the CLEF project, to perform the task of generating a diverse range of textual and graphical summaries of a patient’s clinical history from a data-encoded model, a chronicle, representing the record of the patient’s medical history. Although the focus of our current work is on cancer patients, the approach we describe is generalisable to a wide range of medical areas