iCapture: Facilitating Spontaneous User-Interaction with Pervasive Displays using Smart Devices

Abstract. The eCampus project at Lancaster University is an inter-disciplinary project aiming to deploy a wide range of situated displays across the University campus in order to create a large per-vasive communications infrastructure. At present, we are conducting a series of parallel research activities in order to investigate how the pervasive communications infrastructure can support the daily needs of staff, students and visitors to the University. This paper introduces one of our current research investigations into how one is able to mediate spontaneous interaction with the pervasive display infrastructure through camera equipped mobile phones (i.e. smart devices).

Reinvigorating the discipline:pervasive computing and tomorrow's computer scientists

Declining enrollments in computer science and related fields are a global concern. This issue's column, by Mike Hazas and Rebecca Marsden of Lancaster University in the UK describes the novel Lancaster Headstart program that uses the excitement of pervasive computing to attract students into the computer science

Even Judging Woodrow Wilson by the Standards of His Own Time, He Was Deplorably Racist

The news that Princeton acquiesced to student demands that the university confront the racism of Woodrow Wilson set off a series of responses. Some protest that it is unfair to judge the 28th president by present day standards. These pundits, almost all white, proclaim that Wilson must be understood within the context of his own time. The inference of such an assertion is that in times of pervasive racism it is reasonable for a leader to perpetuate it. Setting aside the assumption that morals are relative rather than absolute, let’s examine Wilson’s actions within his times

Design of an air-flow microchamber for microparticles detec

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.A novel device, able to funnel a suspension of micrometric particles in air into a microchamber equipped with a capacitive sensor, has been designed for the detection and characterization of particulate matter (PM) in air. Numerical simulations have been performed to predict the trajectory of the microparticles through the PDMS microchamber where the sensor is located. The feasibility of detecting single PM10 particles has been demonstrated by our experiments, where sequences of single industrial talc particles (average diameter of 8 μm) have been detected and counted by a capacitive sensor. Our results indicate that radical miniaturization of air quality monitors is possible and, therefore, pervasive monitoring of air pollution will be soon feasible

Functional Sites Induce Long-Range Evolutionary Constraints in Enzymes

Functional residues in proteins tend to be highly conserved over evolutionary time. However, to what extent functional sites impose evolutionary constraints on nearby or even more distant residues is not known. Here, we report pervasive conservation gradients toward catalytic residues in a dataset of 524 distinct enzymes: evolutionary conservation decreases approximately linearly with increasing distance to the nearest catalytic residue in the protein structure. This trend encompasses, on average, 80% of the residues in any enzyme, and it is independent of known structural constraints on protein evolution such as residue packing or solvent accessibility. Further, the trend exists in both monomeric and multimeric enzymes and irrespective of enzyme size and/or location of the active site in the enzyme structure. By contrast, sites in protein–protein interfaces, unlike catalytic residues, are only weakly conserved and induce only minor rate gradients. In aggregate, these observations show that functional sites, and in particular catalytic residues, induce long-range evolutionary constraints in enzymes.Fil: Jack, Benjamin R.. University of Texas at Austin; Estados UnidosFil: Meyer, Austin G.. University of Texas at Austin; Estados UnidosFil: Echave, Julián. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Escuela de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Wilke, Claus O.. University of Texas at Austin; Estados Unido

Warts and all: using student portfolio outcomes to facilitate a faculty development workshop

In 2004, the Department of Writing Studies at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, the U.S., began an assessment of student outcomes for two first-year writing courses (Fall 04 to Fall 05) to evaluate performance on previously established criteria. A study of the students’ Portfolio Assessment Sheets concluded that one pervasive problem was “Development” as determined partly by low A grades in the two courses. To engage the faculty (full-time and adjunct), the grades from Fall 04, Spring 05, and Fall 05 were presented during a SummerWorkshop in June 2006. After analyzing a sample student essay, the 28 faculty participants discussed the implications of “Development” and evaluated the presentation itself. This case study of one college’s participatory exercise in improving writing found some faculty resistance and some unintended results

Gafor : Genetic algorithm based fuzzy optimized re-clustering in wireless sensor networks

Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through Vice Deanship of Scientific Research Chairs: Chair of Pervasive and Mobile Computing. Funding: This research was funded by King Saud University in 2020.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Software Defined Network-Based Multi-Access Edge Framework for Vehicular Networks

The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through Vice Deanship of Scientific Research Chairs: Chair of Pervasive and Mobile Computing.Peer reviewe

University library as a living lab: innovating with students

Ubiquitous and pervasive technologies are part of everyday life, including the portion of it that has something to do with the university libraries: all students use personal mobile technology and all books have embedded sensors. This paper describes three years long experience with student-lead innovation of student-oriented university library services. Stu-dents, as library users themselves, have a potential to initiate changes in the existing practices, or offer novel technological solutions based on ubiquitous and pervasive technologies that are easy to adopt and use for this user group. Within the project described in the paper, the library was established as a living lab for a student-lead innovation. At this stage, the innovators are recruited among interaction design students. The approach shows very promising results, some of which are showcased in the paper