Quality of Experience and Adaptation Techniques for Multimedia Communications

The widespread use of multimedia services on the World Wide Web and the advances in end-user portable devices have recently increased the user demands for better quality. Moreover, providing these services seamlessly and ubiquitously on wireless networks and with user mobility poses hard challenges. To meet these challenges and fulfill the end-user requirements, suitable strategies need to be adopted at both application level and network level. At the application level rate and quality have to be adapted to time-varying bandwidth limitations, whereas on the network side a mechanism for efficient use of the network resources has to be implemented, to provide a better end-user Quality of Experience (QoE) through better Quality of Service (QoS). The work in this thesis addresses these issues by first investigating multi-stream rate adaptation techniques for Scalable Video Coding (SVC) applications aimed at a fair provision of QoE to end-users. Rate Distortion (R-D) models for real-time and non real-time video streaming have been proposed and a rate adaptation technique is also developed to minimize with fairness the distortion of multiple videos with difference complexities. To provide resiliency against errors, the effect of Unequal Error protection (UXP) based on Reed Solomon (RS) encoding with erasure correction has been also included in the proposed R-D modelling. Moreover, to improve the support of QoE at the network level for multimedia applications sensitive to delays, jitters and packet drops, a technique to prioritise different traffic flows using specific QoS classes within an intermediate DiffServ network integrated with a WiMAX access system is investigated. Simulations were performed to test the network under different congestion scenarios

Antecedents of Consumer’s Purchase Intention of Counterfeit Luxury Product

This study analyzed the influential factors of consumers’ purchase intention towards counterfeit luxury products by considering the model of social status, integrity, and novelty seeking. Attitude towards counterfeit product was used as a mediator in the model. The causalities in the model of problematic purchase intention of consumers toward counterfeit luxury products are hypothesized. A total sample of 400 respondents with 385 effective samples was collected by distributing self-administered questionnaires to people from different sectors. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS was adopted for the analysis. Consumers’ attitude towards counterfeit product was found to be positively and significantly related to purchase intention of counterfeit product. As for personality constructs, social status and novelty seeking were found to be positively related to attitude and purchase intention of counterfeit product while integrity did not show significant relationship with purchase intention. These results contribute towards marketing as a subject by advocating the theory used in this study and providing different results which have implications for academicians and managers. Keywords: Counterfeit, Social Status, Integrity, Novelty Seeking, Purchase Intentio

On concircular curvature tensor in a Lorentzian α-Sasakian manifold with respect to the quarter-symmetric non-metric connection

In the present paper, some properties of concircular curvature tensor in a Lorentzian α-Sasakian manifold with respect to the quarter-symmetric non-metric connection have been studied

Evaluation Of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs Implementation And Outcomes In Selected Hospitals At Makkah Region, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are collaborative efforts to optimize antimicrobial use in healthcare institutions through evidence-based quality improvement strategies. The aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of ASPs in a critical care setting for improving antimicrobial use, cost efficiency and clinical outcomes at selected hospitals in Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). In phase one study, an exploratory survey approach was adopted to determine the presence of morbidity caused by organisms in both out and in-patients blood isolates at two Saudi hospitals

SOME NEW RESULTS ON PARA-SASAKIAN MANIFOLD WITH A QUATER-SYMMETRIC METRIC CONNECTION

The objective of the present paper is to study some new results on para-Sasakian manifold with a quarter-symmetric metric connection. We classify the para-Sasakian manifold with respect to the quarter-symmetric metric connection satisfying the conditions\bar{P}.\bar{S}=0, \bar{R}.\bar{S}=0 and \bar{S}.\bar{R}=0. Also, we obtain the conditions for the manifold with a quarter-symmetric metric connection to be \xi-projectively flat and \xi-conformally flat