Quality of Experience Provision in the Future Internet

This work deals with the satisfaction of the quality of experience (QoE) requirements in the perspective of the emerging future Internet framework. The evolution of the Internet is pointing out its limitations, which are likely to hinder its potential. In this respect, this paper introduces an innovative approach to cope with some key limitations of the present communication networks. In particular, the need of efficiently utilizing the available network resources and of guaranteeing the user expectations in terms of QoE requires a full cognitive approach, which is realized by the introduction of a novel architecture design, the so-called future Internet core platform. The future Internet core platform aims at bringing together the applications world with the network world, hence introducing a further cognitive level while enabling a new generation of applications: network-aware applications. This paper is concerned with an important aspect of the intelligent connectivity between applications and network: the service class association, which, if performed with a cognitive approach, can yield some important improvements and advantages in the emerging information era. The key idea presented in this paper is a real-time dynamic control procedure for the selection of the optimal service class. The approach is based on theoretical considerations validated by a proof-of-concept simulation

Approaches for Future Internet architecture design and Quality of Experience (QoE) Control

Researching a Future Internet capable of overcoming the current Internet limitations is a strategic investment. In this respect, this paper presents some concepts that can contribute to provide some guidelines to overcome the above-mentioned limitations. In the authors' vision, a key Future Internet target is to allow applications to transparently, efficiently and flexibly exploit the available network resources with the aim to match the users' expectations. Such expectations could be expressed in terms of a properly defined Quality of Experience (QoE). In this respect, this paper provides some approaches for coping with the QoE provision problem

Serving Clients with Intellectual Disabilities: Clinical Psychology Training in APA-Accredited Doctoral Programs

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience mental health problems at a higher rate than the general population, yet encounter significant barriers in accessing quality mental health services and have poorer mental health outcomes. Disparities in both psychology research and practice contribute to these barriers, and few mental health practitioners are willing and competent to treat people with ID. Lack of training availability has been suspected as an underlying factor, yet no previous investigation of training has been conducted in the United States. This study utilized a 20-question self-administered internet survey to explore the quantity, quality, and types of training APA-accredited doctoral level clinical and counseling programs provide their students with respect to serving clients with ID. Students\u27 self-perceptions of competence with the population and their likelihood of future service provision for clients with ID were also studied. Current predoctoral psychology interns were recruited by emailing each internship training director listed in the APPIC database and asking them to forward a request for research participation. A total of 265 clinical and counseling psychology interns participated, resulting in an estimated response rate of 8.5%. Results revealed that, while more students reported training than expected, overall training was typically minimal, of low quality, and with little emphasis on service provision. Approximately half of the respondents reported a modicum of competence with this population and moderate likelihood to provide future services. An analysis of mediation revealed that perceived competence fully mediated the relationship between training quality and likelihood of future service provision. Without widespread reforms in APA-accredited programs in training for serving clients with ID, people with ID and mental health needs will likely remain an underserved population

Serving Clients with Intellectual Disabilities: Clinical Psychology Training in APA-Accredited Doctoral Programs

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience mental health problems at a higher rate than the general population, yet encounter significant barriers in accessing quality mental health services and have poorer mental health outcomes. Disparities in both psychology research and practice contribute to these barriers, and few mental health practitioners are willing and competent to treat people with ID. Lack of training availability has been suspected as an underlying factor, yet no previous investigation of training has been conducted in the United States. This study utilized a 20-question self-administered internet survey to explore the quantity, quality, and types of training APA-accredited doctoral level clinical and counseling programs provide their students with respect to serving clients with ID. Students\u27 self-perceptions of competence with the population and their likelihood of future service provision for clients with ID were also studied. Current predoctoral psychology interns were recruited by emailing each internship training director listed in the APPIC database and asking them to forward a request for research participation. A total of 265 clinical and counseling psychology interns participated, resulting in an estimated response rate of 8.5%. Results revealed that, while more students reported training than expected, overall training was typically minimal, of low quality, and with little emphasis on service provision. Approximately half of the respondents reported a modicum of competence with this population and moderate likelihood to provide future services. An analysis of mediation revealed that perceived competence fully mediated the relationship between training quality and likelihood of future service provision. Without widespread reforms in APA-accredited programs in training for serving clients with ID, people with ID and mental health needs will likely remain an underserved population

Network-assisted Smart Access Point Selection for Pervasive Real-time mHealth Applications

AbstractDue to the fast evolution of wireless access networks and high-performance mobile devices together with the spreading of wearable medical sensors, electronic healthcare (eHealth) services have recently started to receive more and more attention, especially in the mobile Health (mHealth) domain. The vast majority of mHealth services require strict medical level Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) provision. Emergency use-cases, remote patient monitoring, tele-consultation and guided surgical intervention require real-time communication and appropriate connection quality. The increasing significance of different overlapping wireless accesses makes possible to provide the required network resources for ubiquitous and pervasive mHealth applications. Aiming to support such use-cases in a heterogeneous network environment, we propose a network-assisted intelligent access point selection scheme for ubiquitous applications of Future Internet architectures focusing on real-time mobile telemedicine services. Our solution is able to discover nearby base stations that cover the current location of the mobile device efficiently and to trigger heterogeneous handovers based on the state and quality of the current access network. The solution is empirically evaluated in Wi-Fi networks used by real-life Android mobile devices and we observed that the scheme can improve the quality of mHealth applications and enhance traffic load balancing capabilities of wireless architectures

Users’ Satisfaction with Internet Service Performance-Based on User Log

We are currently on the cusp of a digital era when people engage Internet services (Int-Sevs) ceaselessly for sundry purposes such as learning, teaching, and research. However, the lack of sufficient understanding of user satisfaction still poses a huge challenge to Int-Sevs adaption to users’ dynamic needs and the provision of required services in real-time within the university’s context. This understanding is needful concerning what influences the performance of the Int-Sevs of a university. This paper, therefore, analyses the user log of about 65000 log items generated by 120 users of a university’s internet services that were collected over three months. The mixed-method approach was adopted. Thus, the two-step clustering and crosstabulation techniques were applied to identify natural groupings and examine them for existing relationships (respectively) to determine the existence of user satisfaction. The results showed a significant association and relationship between user satisfaction and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The study concluded that with data and efficient techniques, KPIs with user-centric criteria like user satisfaction could be investigated to find what influences the performance of a university’s IntSevs. The quality of users’ experience was omitted and left to be considered in the future in a conceivably longitudinal study

Customer anger and incentives for quality provision

Emotions are a significant determinant of consumer behaviour. A customer may get angry if he feels that he is being treated unfairly by his supplier and that anger may make him more likely to switch to an alternative provider. We model the strategic interaction between firms that choose quality levels and anger-prone customers who pick their supplier based on their expectations of suppliers' quality. Strategic interaction can allow for multiple equilibria including some in which no firm invests in high quality. Allowing customers to voice their anger on peer-review fora can eliminate low-quality equilibria, and may even support a unique equilibrium in which all firms choose high quality

Becta Review 2005. Evidence on the progress of ICT in education.

Drawing on Becta national surveys of ICT use and implementation within the education system, the Becta Review identified the ways in which ICT could be used to support the DfES 5 year strategy, to introduce greater efficiencies in educational provision and more choice/personalisation of content and delivery

Get yourself connected: conceptualising the role of digital technologies in Norwegian career guidance

This report outlines the role of digital technologies in the provision of career guidance. It was commissioned by the c ommittee on career guidance which is advising the Norwegian Government following a review of the countries skills system by the OECD. In this report we argue that career guidance and online career guidance in particular can support the development of Norwa y’s skills system to help meet the economic challenges that it faces.The expert committee advising Norway’s Career Guidance Initiativ