Multi-User Interactive TV: the Next Step in Personalization

In the past few years there has been an increasing trend towards personalization in the TV world. IMS-based IPTV is a good example of a highly personalized IPTV architecture, featuring an advanced identity management subsystem. This article studies a next step in the personalization of the television experience: concurrent use of TV services that are supported by the IMSbased IPTV system. That is, multiple users using the same television set at the same or at different times, where each user as personalized interaction with the service and content. Our analysis of IMS-based IPTV use cases shows that current architectures were not designed with concurrent use in mind. However, we demonstrate that the combination of concurrent use and personalized TV services can yield interesting and viable use cases in the areas of interactive game shows, personalized electronic program guides and channel lists, and other. Finally, an analysis of the IMS-based IPTV system and architecture shows that it has all the ingredients to implement these new concurrent TV use cases, and that the main challenges will be in the area of usability. The article concludes that personalization and concurrency are not contradictory for television services, neither from a use case perspective, nor technologically. In particular, the IMS-based IPTV system is able to facilitate an enhanced and personalized experience to concurrent TV users

SUPERVISORY COMMUNICATION AND ITS EFFECT ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AT THE CUT, WELKOM CAMPUS

Published ArticleMany large organisations tend to focus on their external communication in order to project a positive image to potential clients. However the role of internal communication with employees has often been overlooked, although it remains one of the most important areas of organisational communication. This article focuses on specific findings of the Master's dissertation, Supervisory Communication and its Effect on Employee Satisfaction at the Central University of Technology, Welkom Campus. The research results that employees' views about their own organisation impact on how external clients view that particular organisation. The research found that in order for employees to become advocates of their own organisation, supervisors of different operational units should develop and manage their internal communication activities in a way that motivates and stimulates employee enthusiasm for meeting organisational goals. Once employees are satisfied with the state of supervisory communication in their respective units, they should be able to identify with their organisation and endeavour to attain organisational goals

The Role Of The Multidisciplinary Team Meeting in An Antiretroviral Treatment Programme

The importance of adherence in the management of patients on combination antiretroviral therapy has been well documented.1-6 However, for  sustainability of the overall programme adequate patient ‘tracking’ is required in order to understand where the programme may be failing

Perspectives of education stakeholders on the influence immediacy, verbal aggression and compliance gaining have on learnerperformance

Published article at Central University of Technology Free State, BloemfonteinIn South Africa the educational system has seen many changes over the past few years. Transformation in education has been introduced to correct imbalances of the previous South African educational system and to improve learner achievement in some of the previously disadvantaged schools. Despite changes that have been implemented, learners in many South African schools are still underperforming. The primary aim of this investigation reported in this article was to establish the extent to which selected micro communication factors, namely, immediacy, verbal aggression and compliance gaining influence learner achievement. The researcher argues that micro communication factors in the classroom could influence learner performance either positively or negatively. According to Robinson, learner achievement refers to the ability of a learner to succeed in an assessment and to display a satisfactory level of competence

The series limited liability company: Innovative, flexible … and complicated

Since the introduction of the limited liability company (LLC) in the United States of America, various states have recognised the need to experiment with ways of improving the limited liability this structure offers. Of particular interest in this regard is the development of the series LLC. The series LLC was intended to provide a more flexible manner for businesses to conduct their activities, while preventing the risks of liability from affecting the entire LLC enterprise. However, uptake of the series LLC has been slow. This can allegedly be ascribed to uncertainty about how this structure may be utilised for commercial purposes, as its relation to business law remains, to a large extent, unresolved. This article examines these uncertainties, including the “separateness” of the series LLC, the recognition of the limited liability it affords, the application of bankruptcy law, taxation, as well as the fiduciary duties attached to the structure. Certain recommendations are made to ease the way forward, while further legal development is awaited. First, series LLC statutes need to specifically provide for all the rights of each series as well as the rights reserved for the master LLC. Secondly, these statutes must specify a default rule for the measure of “separateness” between the master LLC and each series. Finally, series statutes ought to provide for notice of the limited liability of each series to creditors of the LLC

Mach's Principle and Model for a Broken Symmetric Theory of Gravity

We investigate spontaneous symmetry breaking in a conformally invariant gravitational model. In particular, we use a conformally invariant scalar tensor theory as the vacuum sector of a gravitational model to examine the idea that gravitational coupling may be the result of a spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this model matter is taken to be coupled with a metric which is different but conformally related to the metric appearing explicitly in the vacuum sector. We show that after the spontaneous symmetry breaking the resulting theory is consistent with Mach's principle in the sense that inertial masses of particles have variable configurations in a cosmological context. Moreover, our analysis allows to construct a mechanism in which the resulting large vacuum energy density relaxes during evolution of the universe.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Redundancy Strategies for a High Splitting Optically Amplified Passive Optical Network

Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.High splitting, optically amplified, passive optical networks (SuperPONs) are investigated in terms of redundancy provision and protection mechanisms. Options for redundancy, including the important special case of dual homing, are detailed, and it is determined as to which of these options (duplication of the feeder and first distribution section, and N+1 protection of the optical amplifiers in the amplified splitter) would be required to be provided to all attached users to facilitate appropriate availability of the basic telephony service. The distributed amplified splitter dual homing solution is found to outperform the single amplified splitter solution in terms of its survivability. The protection mechanisms necessary to automatically switch to the redundant provision are discussed and it is seen that with the aid of suitable regular precautionary procedures protection switching can generally be provided rapidly (<50 ms). Finally, an availability, and cost versus availability, study confirms the aforementioned redundancy assessment for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) implementations, but shows fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) as needing additional redundancyPeer reviewe

Phase evolution of Na2O–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O gels in synthetic aluminosilicate binders

This study demonstrates the production of stoichiometrically controlled alkali-aluminosilicate gels (‘geopolymers’) via alkali-activation of high-purity synthetic amorphous aluminosilicate powders. This method provides for the first time a process by which the chemistry of aluminosilicate-based cementitious materials may be accurately simulated by pure synthetic systems, allowing elucidation of physicochemical phenomena controlling alkali-aluminosilicate gel formation which has until now been impeded by the inability to isolate and control key variables. Phase evolution and nanostructural development of these materials are examined using advanced characterisation techniques, including solid state MAS NMR spectroscopy probing 29Si, 27Al and 23Na nuclei. Gel stoichiometry and the reaction kinetics which control phase evolution are shown to be strongly dependent on the chemical composition of the reaction mix, while the main reaction product is a Na2O–Al2O3–SiO2–H2O type gel comprised of aluminium and silicon tetrahedra linked via oxygen bridges, with sodium taking on a charge balancing function. The alkali-aluminosilicate gels produced in this study constitute a chemically simplified model system which provides a novel research tool for the study of phase evolution and microstructural development in these systems. Novel insight of physicochemical phenomena governing geopolymer gel formation suggests that intricate control over time-dependent geopolymer physical properties can be attained through a careful precursor mix design. Chemical composition of the main N–A–S–H type gel reaction product as well as the reaction kinetics governing its formation are closely related to the Si/Al ratio of the precursor, with increased Al content leading to an increased rate of reaction and a decreased Si/Al ratio in the N–A–S–H type gel. This has significant implications for geopolymer mix design for industrial applications