m-Learning in the education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level: A user requirements study

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE.An extensive user requirements study was carried out to define the scope of functionality for the applications of m-learning with the potential to enhance the student performance and experience within the BSc Multimedia Technology and Design (MMTD) course at the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, United Kingdom. Based on participatory action research and user-centered design, the study involved 58 students attending the course at Level 2. All students participated in three sequential study sessions. The first session included a presentation of the concept of m-learning and a selection of related applications and underlying technologies. The second session consisted of 13 moderated semistructured focus groups. The groups were steered to specify their ideas as to how m-learning could best contribute to the MMTD course. In the third session, working in the same groups as in the second, the students were briefed to refine the ideas arising from the focus group discussions and "translate?? them into the concept of the single m-learning application (one per group) that was seen as being potentially the most beneficial for the course. The 13 smart-phone-based m--learning applications that were thus generated were subsequently analyzed and their individual functions broken down and grouped into five main functionality themes. These themes, outlining the scope of functionality for m-learning in the context of education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level, are: administration, presentation, feedback, motivation, and innovation

m-Learning in the education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level: A user requirements study

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE.An extensive user requirements study was carried out to define the scope of functionality for the applications of m-learning with the potential to enhance the student performance and experience within the BSc Multimedia Technology and Design (MMTD) course at the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, United Kingdom. Based on participatory action research and user-centered design, the study involved 58 students attending the course at Level 2. All students participated in three sequential study sessions. The first session included a presentation of the concept of m-learning and a selection of related applications and underlying technologies. The second session consisted of 13 moderated semistructured focus groups. The groups were steered to specify their ideas as to how m-learning could best contribute to the MMTD course. In the third session, working in the same groups as in the second, the students were briefed to refine the ideas arising from the focus group discussions and "translate?? them into the concept of the single m-learning application (one per group) that was seen as being potentially the most beneficial for the course. The 13 smart-phone-based m--learning applications that were thus generated were subsequently analyzed and their individual functions broken down and grouped into five main functionality themes. These themes, outlining the scope of functionality for m-learning in the context of education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level, are: administration, presentation, feedback, motivation, and innovation

Comment on "Low Temperature Magnetic Instabilities in Triply Charged Fulleride Polymers" by D. Arcon et al., PRL 84, 562 (2000)

Recently, Arcon et al. reported ESR studies of the polymer phase (PP) of Na_{2}Rb_{0.3}Cs_{0.7}C_{60} fulleride. It was claimed that this phase is a quasi-one-dimensional metal above 45 K with a spin-gap below this temperature and has antiferromagnetic(AF) order below 15 K, that is evidenced by antiferromagnetic resonance(AFMR). For the understanding of the rich physics of fullerides it is important to identify the different ground states. ESR has proven to be a useful technique for this purpose. However, since it is a very sensitive probe, it can detect a multitude of spin species and it is not straightforward to identify their origin, especially in a system like Na_{2}Rb_{x}Cs_{1-x}C_{60} with three dopants, when one part of the sample polymerizes but the majority does not. The observation of a low dimensional instability in the single bonded PP would be a novel and important result. Nevertheless, in this Comment we argue that Na_{2}Rb_{0.3}Cs_{0.7}C_{60} is not a good choice for this purpose since, as we show, the samples used by Arcon et al. are inhomogeneous. We point out that recent results on the PP of Na_{2}CsC_{60} contradicts the observation of low dimensional instabilities in Na_{2}Rb_{0.3}Cs_{0.7}C_{60}.Comment: 1 pags, no figure

Using remote vision: The effects of video image frame rate on visual object recognition performance

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.The process of using remote vision was simulated in order to determine the effects of video image frame rate on the performance in visual recognition of stationary environmental hazards in the dynamic video footage of the pedestrian travel environment. The recognition performance was assessed against two different video image frame rate variations: 25 and 2 fps. The assessment included a range of objective and subjective criteria. The obtained results show that the effects of the frame rate variations on the performance are statistically insignificant. This paper belongs to the process of development of a novel system for navigation of visually impaired pedestrians. The navigation system includes a remote vision facility, and the visual recognition of the environmental hazards by the sighted human guide is a basic activity in aiding the visually impaired user of the system in mobility

Client-server-based LBS architecture: A novel positioning module for improved positioning performance

Permission to distribute obtained from publisher.This work presents a new efficient positioning module that operates over client-server LBS architectures. The aim of the proposed module is to fulfil the position information requirements for LBS pedestrian applications by ensuring the availability of reliable, highly accurate and precise position solutions based on GPS single frequency (L1) positioning service. The positioning module operates at both LBS architecture sides; the client (mobile device), and the server (positioning server). At the server side, the positioning module is responsible for correcting user’s location information based on WADGPS corrections. In addition, at the mobile side, the positioning module is continually in charge for monitoring the integrity and available of the position solutions as well as managing the communication with the server. The integrity monitoring was based on EGNOS integrity methods. A prototype of the proposed module was developed and used in experimental trials to evaluate the efficiency of the module in terms of the achieved positioning performance. The positioning module was capable of achieving a horizontal accuracy of less than 2 meters with a 95% confidence level with integrity improvement of more than 30% from existing GPS/EGNOS services

Participatory Budgeting – the Case of the Slovak Republic

This paper deals with the issue of participatory budgeting as one of the newer tools of political participation. Its aim is to characterise the current situation in the Slovak Republic at two levels of territorial self-administration (self-governing regions and municipalities). To reach defined aims, it monitors the existence of legislative settings at the national level, the existence of individual settings at the observed levels and subsequently the practical application of the participatory budgeting itself. Procedures associated with the study of documents are used in article; the obtained data are summarized, described and compared mutually. In addition to laws and regulations issued by self-government units, the source of data is also the regional and local self-government units’ official websites. In the absence of one universal definition of the participatory budgeting rules at the national level, the findings have shown that there are relatively extensive conditions for implementing participatory budgeting with its specific settings defined by self-administrations. In Slovakia, participatory budgeting is only gradually introduced into the internal rules, which reflects a relatively small number of municipalities or self-governing regions, which ultimately use it effectively

Fluorescencijska hibridizacija in situ (FISH) u detekciji kromosomskih oštećenja nastalih kao posljedica profesionalne izloženosti ionizirajućem zračenju

For more than two decades, chromosome aberration analysis has been used in biomonitoring of occupational and environmental exposure to ionising radiation. Chromosome aberration analysis is a method used to detect unstable aberrations in the lymphocytes of irradiated personnel. In turn, stable chromosome aberrations that arise some time after exposure are detected using the multicolour fluorescence in situ hybridisation. This is a technique which dyes each pair of chromosomes with different colour. Due to the dynamics of unstable aberration formation, chromosome aberration analysis is more suitable for genome damage assessment of recent exposures. On the other hand, fluorescence in situ hybridisation gives information on chromosome instability caused by long-time occupational exposure to ionising radiation. Considering the high cost of fluorescence in situ hybridisation and the uncertainty of the result, it should be used in biodosimetry only when it is absolutely necessary.Posljednjih dvadesetak godina analiza kromosomskih aberacija rabi se kao glavna citogenetička tehnika u biodozimetriji osoba profesionalno izloženih zračenju. Metoda omogućava utvrđivanje prisutnosti nestabilnih tipova oštećenja u limfocitima ozračenih osoba. Međutim, njome nije moguće istodobno utvrditi i prisutnost stabilnih tipova oštećenja kao što su translokacije. U tu svrhu potrebno se koristiti višebojnom fluorescencijskom hibridizacijom in situ (mFISH) kojom je moguće svaki par kromosoma obojiti drugom bojom. Zbog same dinamike nastanka nestabilnih kromosomskih oštećenja analiza kromosomskih aberacija, kao citogenetička tehnika, prikladnija je za procjenu genomskih oštećenja u kratkom vremenu nakon ozračivanja, dok bi FISH mogao naći primjenu u detekciji stabilnih oštećenja genoma koja nastaju kao posljedica dugotrajne profesionalne izloženosti zračenju. Međutim, zbog visokih troškova same tehnike i zahtjevnosti njezine izvedbe, FISH kao tehnika u biodozimetriji rabila bi se samo u slučajevima kada podatke o stupnju oštećenja genoma nije moguće dobiti primjenom ni jedne druge citogenetičke tehnike

The crystal structure, microstructure, and dielectric properties of BaTi1-xSnxO3 (x = 0,0.05 and 0.1) ceramics sintered in different atmospheres (air and Ar)

Due to specific dielectric and ferroelectric properties, functional ceramics based on barium titanate (BaTiO3) have found application in semiconductor industries. Appropriate electrical properties of barium titanate-based materials, such as magnitude of relative dielectric permittivity and the Curie temperature, could be achieved by varying the sintering conditions (which influenced ceramics’ microstructure) and/or by doping with various cations. Here, we investigated an influence of sintering atmosphere (air and argon) on the crystal structure, microstructure, and dielectric properties of barium titanate-stannate (BTS; BaTi1-xSnxO3) ceramics. The BTS powders (with x = 0, 0.05 and 0.1; denoted BT, BTS5 and BTS 10, respectively) were synthesized by solid-state reaction technique. In the following, the powders were uniaxially pressed (P = 240 MPa) into cylindrical compacts (Ø6 mm and h approx. 2 mm) and sintered in SETSYS TMA (Setaram Instrumentation, Caluire, France) by heating rate of 10 °/min up 1420 °C and with dwell time of 2 hours. To establish the influence of a sintering atmosphere two sets of experiments were performed: (1) in air, and (2) in Ar. During sintering, the shrinkage was recorded in axial (h) direction. The crystal structure of BTS ceramics were studied at room temperature by X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectroscopy. The microstructure and chemical (Ti/Sn) composition were examined by SEM–EDS methods. The electrical measurements were made in air, at 1 kHz using a Wayne Kerr Universal Bridge B224; the measurements were done in cooling, from 160 to 20 °C. A profound effect of argon atmosphere on the magnitude of relative dielectric permittivity of sintered BTS ceramics has been found

Perceptual impact of environmental factors in sighted and visually impaired individuals

To a visually impaired individual the physical world presents many challenges. For a person with impaired sight, wayfinding through a complex environment is fraught with dangers, both actual and imagined. The current generation of mobility aids have the possibility of addressing a broad range of physical issues through technological solutions. The perception of difficulty however, can mean that many visually impaired individuals are fearful or uncomfortable about independent mobility or travel. In this context it becomes necessary to discover exactly what environments, environmental factors or items constitute a ‘perception of difficulty’ in the individuals mental landscape and may trigger a negative response before they interact with the physical environment. This paper reports on research, which sought to ascertain what levels of perceptual difficulties specific environments and factors presented to individuals. The research was conducted with both visually impaired and sighted groups and compared differences and similarities in perceptual difficulty between these two groups