An innovative machine learning-based scheduling solution for improving live UHD video streaming quality in highly dynamic network environments

The latest advances in terms of network technologies open up new opportunities for high-end applications, including using the next generation video streaming technologies. As mobile devices become more affordable and powerful, an increasing range of rich media applications could offer a highly realistic and immersive experience to mobile users. However, this comes at the cost of very stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, putting significant pressure on the underlying networks. In order to accommodate these new rich media applications and overcome their associated challenges, this paper proposes an innovative Machine Learning-based scheduling solution which supports increased quality for live omnidirectional (360◦) video streaming. The proposed solution is deployed in a highly dy-namic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based environment to support immersive live omnidirectional video streaming to mobile users. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulations and compared against three state-of-the-art scheduling solutions, such as: Static Prioritization (SP), Required Activity Detection Scheduler (RADS) and Frame Level Scheduler (FLS). The results show that the proposed solution outperforms the other schemes involved in terms of PSNR, throughput and packet loss rate

Imagining 5G: Public sensemaking through advertising in China and the US

This study initiates a line of research on how the fifth generation of wireless infrastructure (“5G”) is being imagined through media portrayals—in this case through advertising. At the time of this writing, 5G is not yet widely available, however the media is saturated with narratives about how it will revolutionize everyday life. Drawing from the social imaginaries and media infrastructures traditions, this textual analysis examines the social shaping of 5G through advertisements from leading telecoms in leading markets, including China and the United States. Findings reveal an overarching trend with ads from both societies imagining 5G in futuristic and utopian ways, suggesting new possibilities for people, objects, and places to be connected through smart homes, vehicles, factories, and cities—not just through smart phones. The findings also reveal distinctions in how 5G is envisioned at the societal level. For example, ads from China imagine 5G as a source of national pride that will elevate its global standing, while the US telecoms have a more inward focus on domestic competition. The discussion offers interpretations of these and other findings, along with directions for future research

A Systematic Literature Survey of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based Structural Health Monitoring

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being employed in a multitude of civil applications owing to their ease of use, low maintenance, affordability, high-mobility, and ability to hover. UAVs are being utilized for real-time monitoring of road traffic, providing wireless coverage, remote sensing, search and rescue operations, delivery of goods, security and surveillance, precision agriculture, and civil infrastructure inspection. They are the next big revolution in technology and civil infrastructure, and it is expected to dominate more than $45 billion market value. The thesis surveys the UAV assisted Structural Health Monitoring or SHM literature over the last decade and categorize UAVs based on their aerodynamics, payload, design of build, and its applications. Further, the thesis presents the payload product line to facilitate the SHM tasks, details the different applications of UAVs exploited in the last decade to support civil structures, and discusses the critical challenges faced in UASHM applications across various domains. Finally, the thesis presents two artificial neural network-based structural damage detection models and conducts a detailed performance evaluation on multiple platforms like edge computing and cloud computing

Pandemic Media: Preliminary Notes Toward an Inventory

With its unprecedented scale and consequences the COVID-19 pandemic has generated a variety of new configurations of media. Responding to demands for information, synchronization, regulation, and containment, these "pandemic media" reorder social interactions, spaces, and temporalities, thus contributing to a reconfiguration of media technologies and the cultures and polities with which they are entangled. Highlighting media’s adaptability, malleability, and scalability under the conditions of a pandemic, the contributions to this volume track and analyze how media emerge, operate, and change in response to the global crisis and provide elements toward an understanding of the post-pandemic world to come

The Visual Citizen in a Digital News Landscape

This article’s contribution to theory-building focuses on the everyday circumstances under which journalism encourages a civic gaze. Specifically, it elaborates our heuristic conception of the “visual citizen” to explore journalism’s mediation of a politics of seeing, paying particular attention to how and why renderings of in/visibility signify varied opportunities for civic engagement within digital news landscapes. In recognizing a distinction between direct and virtual witnessing, it establishes a conceptual basis for an inductive typology delineating interrelated, potential citizen-subject positions across a continuum. Four such positions are identified and appraised, namely the visual citizen as: (a) news observer and circulator, (b) accidental news image-maker and contributor, (c) purposeful news image-maker and activist, and (d) creative image-maker and news commentator. Evaluating these positions in relation to their significance for visual journalism, this article aims to advance efforts to rethink the inscription of imagery in news reportage and its import for public life

Drones and the Creative Industry

This open access, interdisciplinary book presents innovative strategies in the use of civil drones in the cultural and creative industry. Specially aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the book offers valuable insights from the fields of marketing, engineering, arts and management. With contributions from experts representing varied interests throughout the creative industry, including academic researchers, software developers and engineers, it analyzes the needs of the creative industry when using civil drones both outdoors and indoors. The book also provides timely recommendations to the industry, as well as guidance for academics and policymakers

Narratives of Crisis and Independent Cinema: Production, Aesthetics, and Ideology in the Films of Ramin Bahrani

This dissertation examines the first six U.S. feature films of Iranian-American director Ramin Bahrani in order to explore key connections between various industrially independent production modes and the aesthetic and ideological qualities of the films. Bahrani’s films are divided into three distinct periods based on the production mode in which he was working at the time, here characterized as microbudget, guerilla-style independent, Indiewood, and digital streaming productions. Each chapter explores the production mode in question, including production histories of the relevant films, and then discusses key connections arising between production strategies, aesthetics, and the films’ ideological and historical import. Ultimately this dissertation raises questions about how what “independence” means in a contemporary and increasingly digital filmmaking landscape, as well as how audiences are asked to receive and understand socio-politically engaged films via aesthetics, production narratives, and exhibition context

Future agendas in urban tourism research: special editorial

Academic researchers were provided with an additional forum to exchange knowledge, research and agendas on the critical study of urban tourism and tourism cities with the emergence of the International Journal of Tourism Cities in 2015. Since then, the Journal has been recognized for its outstanding contribution to the urban tourism research by numerous scholars. This recognition was embodied in prestigious academic abstracting and indexing, such as achieving the Emerging Sources Citation Index, and Scopus and SJR indices of above 0.5. International Journal of Tourism Cities also welcomed numerous international scholars to its editorial board, of which some also serve as the theme editors. Theme editors were invited to provide their insights on future research agendas in urban tourism research. With this gesture, the Journal wishes to mark the celebration of the fifth volume in the fifth year of publishing and many above mentioned recognitions, as well as acknowledging the valuable time and effort of many scholars dedicated to its recent success. Therefore, this Special Editorial serves as the roadmap for future research on the opportunities and challenges for urban tourism. It initially touches upon more recent technological advancements and their impact on tourism in cities, calling for better understanding on the concept of smartness and highlighting the importance of social media. Furthermore, sustainability, quality of life, and tourism planning and development have been heavily challenged by sharing economy and tourists' quest for unique experiences enabled by new technologies. Several important questions and perspectives have been outlined – from responsible tourism, to ethnoscapes, to acknowledgement that urban tourism not only impacts the quality of life of local residents but also its visitors. Lessons learnt from crises may bring new opportunities to managing urban tourism, just as in the case of Post-Communist countries. However, with the potential of terrorism at every corner of the world, new research on crisis management is anticipated. Looking further down the line of challenges for urban tourism, tourists’ behaviour has dynamically changed with the help of new technologies. So, has the behaviour of business travellers, for whom we need better understanding of their experiences of being invited, to attending, to post-travel behaviour in relation to business events. Moreover, the need for better understanding of special interest tourism and its impact on tourism management, supply and demand business perspectives, and host community. Similarly, new research agendas should also focus on the conservation of nature and its importance for city tourism. In conclusion, the Special Editorial brings a fresh perspective on new visual research methodology that offers numerous possibilities for research by elicitation techniques and researcher- or research participant-produced visuals

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio