Multimedia Production as an Upgrade of ICT in Elementary Schools

Numerous classic multimedia activities already exist in elementary schools, alongside regular classes which are more or less technically supported and offer many possibilities for a sensible introduction of modem ICT （information-communication technology） into schools. By using modem technologies, it is possible to upgrade multimedia activities, enrich and at the same time raise work quality and efficiency in schools, increase knowledge, skills and competences in an unforced way, and increase the competitiveness of teachers and students with modem information communication equipment and technologies. By introducing modem technologies to school work, a modem organisation of school and class activities is enabled, technical culture improves, parents and experts from the environment are more involved as mentors to students and assistants to teachers. Realisation of students＇ ideas and projects is enabled on different projects where the students can express various forms of talent, as numerous possibilities for developing entrepreneur thinking will open. Schools acquire multimedia material which can enhance the learning process, archives, activities, school image, and website; they connect to local media and can cooperate in international school web projects, improve their recognition and competitiveness, and increase the chances of acquiring additional resources for their work.     

Modeling Distributed Multimedia Synchronization with DSPN

Multimedia synchronization is the essential technology for the integration of multimedia in distributed multimedia systems.The multimedia synchronization model has been recognized by many researchers as a premise of the implementation of multimedia synchronization.In distributed multimedia systems,the characteristic of multimedia synchronization is dynamic,and the key medium has the priority in multimedia synchronization.The previously proposed multimedia synchronization models cannot meet these requirements.So a new multimedia dynamic synchronization model-DSPN,based on the timed Petri-net has been designed in this paper.This model can not only let the distributed multimedia system keep multimedia synchronization in a more precise and effective manner according to the runtime situation of the system,but also allow the user to interact with the presentation of multimedia.     

Effective I/O Scheme Based on RTP for Multimedia Communication Systems

The prime standard for audio/video transport in IP networks is the Real-time Transport Protocol （RTP） and it is targeted at useful services for the transport of real-time multimedia data. RTP was originally designed for use in multicast conferences, using the lightweight sessions model. RTP （in particular, the data part） is so tightly coupled to the application that a number of people have developed libraries that implement RTP. However, little is known about the RTP overheads between user area and kernel area within operating systenl. Actually, unnecessary copying between user area and kernel area lowers the system efficiency. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of Enhanced Multimedia Input/Output Scheme based on LINUX. We brought focus to the crossover architecture supporting RTP. Our contributions are able to be summarized into two components： 1） Enhanced Input/Output （EIO） scheme based on LINUX improves the transmission speed by reducing the overheads generated from data copy and context switch between user area and kernel area. And this enables server-based system to transport multimedia data more efficiently. 2） Furthermore, Enhanced Input/Output scheme with RTP （EIORTP） scheme supports efficient multimedia data transmission architecture. The two schemes improve the performance of massive multimedia data transmission.     

Information and Communication Technologies： A Way to Reduce Digital Illiteracy

The teaching-learning process may have several obstacles; one of those would be a cultural situation of students. When the author refers to cultural situation, the author means the language or dialect that they speak. In the state of Puebla, Mexico, there are primary schools where the courses are taught to students who do not speak Spanish and they only speak their own dialect. On the other hand, the use of information and communication technologies in primary schools in Puebla is a fact but a main concern in schools is that the languages in which they are operated are Spanish. To analyze this situation, the author finds that turns out to be very important and with a negative effect on both the implementation and acceptance of a multimedia program in these schools, generating a technological gap between students. The government efforts are decimated because of this cultural divide prevalent in many communities in the state of Puebla and the increase of this situation when considering the illiterate population.     

Technological Gap： The Education Case of the State of Puebla,Mexico

The teaching-learning process may have several obstacles; one of those would be a cultural situation of students but also the ICT （information and communication technologies） resource distribution per children. When we refer to cultural situation, we mean the language or dialect that they speak. In the state of Puebla, Mexico, there are primary schools in which courses are taught to students who do not speak Spanish and they only speak their own dialect. On the other hand, the use of information and communication technologies in primary schools in Puebla is a fact but a main concern in schools is that the languages in which are operated is Spanish. The present article will also deal with the distribution of enciclomedia sets per children population in the 217 communities of the state of Puebla. To analyze this situation, we find that turns out to be very important and with a negative effect on both the implementation and acceptance of a multimedia program in these schools, generating a technological gap between students. The government efforts are being decimated because of this cultural divide prevalent in many communities in the state of Puebla, Mexico.     

Striping and Scheduling for Large Scale Multimedia Servers

When designing a multimedia server, several things must be decided: which scheduling scheme to adopt, how to allocate multimedia objects on storage devices, and the round length with which the streams will be serviced. Several problems in the designing of large-scale multimedia servers are addressed, with the following contributions: (1) a striping scheme is proposed that minimizes the number of seeks and hence maximizes the performance; (2) a simple and efficient mechanism is presented to find the optimal striping unit size as well as the optimal round length, which exploits both the characteristics of VBR streams and the situation of resources in the system; and (3) the characteristics and resource requirements of several scheduling schemes are investigated in order to obtain a clear indication as to which scheme shows the best performance in realtime multimedia servicing. Based on our analysis and experimental results, the CSCAN scheme outperforms the other schemes. It is believed that the results ar     

Design of multimedia conference control system based on SIP

As various multimedia communication services are increasingly required by Intemet users, several signaling protocols have been proposed for the efficient control of multimedia communication services. However, the model and architecture of multimedia conferencing are several. This paper first introduces some SIP multimedia conferencing architectures, and their advantages, disadvantages and performance. According to a centralized multimedia conferencing model, feasible system architecture is constructed, which can support middle scale multimedia conference. Then it analyzes the key technologies in centralized SIP multimedia conference, such as media server design and audio mixing, Then, a multimedia conference system is designed based on SIP. The SIP-based control mechanism for achieving the scalability has been designed in details. Finally, the system＇s performance is evaluated and discussed.     

Development of a simple model for batch and boundary information updation for a similar ship’s block model

In early 2000,large domestic shipyards introduced shipbuilding 3D computer-aided design (CAD) to the hull production design process to define manufacturing and assembly information.The production design process accounts for most of the man-hours (M/H) of the entire design process and is closely connected to yard production because designs must take into account the production schedule of the shipyard,the current state of the dock needed to mount the ship’s block,and supply information.Therefore,many shipyards are investigating the complete automation of the production design process to reduce the M/H for designers.However,these problems are still currently unresolved,and a clear direction is needed for research on the automatic design base of manufacturing rules,batches reflecting changed building specifications,batch updates of boundary information for hull members,and management of the hull model change history to automate the production design process.In this study,a process was developed to aid production design engineers in designing a new ship’s hull block model from that of a similar ship previously built,based on AVEVA Marine.An automation system that uses the similar ship’s hull block model is proposed to reduce M/H and human errors by the production design engineer.First,scheme files holding important information were constructed in a database to automatically update hull block model modifications.Second,for batch updates,the database’s table,including building specifications and the referential integrity of a relational database were compared.In particular,this study focused on reflecting the frequent modification of building specifications and regeneration of boundary information of the adjacent panel due to changes in a specific panel.Third,the rollback function is proposed in which the database (DB) is used to return to the previously designed panels.     

A research of the employment problem on common job-seekers and graduates

A problem on the employment market swarming with both multitudinous common job-seekers and graduates was studied. The employment situation in the market was analyzed firstly. Based on the analysis, the situation was dynamically modeled. The model was properly processed and simplified. A control model corresponding to the method was deduced. As a result, a control solution for the model is obtained, and an example with Simulink demonstrates the control effect. By means of the proposed method, an optimal control for the dynamic balance between multitudinous common job-seekers and graduates can be obtained.     

Communication Methods： Instructors＇ Positions at Istanbul Aydin University Distance Education Institute

In the world of higher education, several issues are converging： （1） advances in computer technology; （2） rapidly growing enrollments; （3） changing student demographics; and （4） continued cost containment requirements. Work based research involves action plan for the improvement of Distance Education Institute that requires a change based on quality mission of Istanbul Aydin University and EUA norms. This research is part of learning process in Doctorate of Professional Studies that has significant contributions on online pedagogy and teaching process for online tutors in enhancing their professional growth. The work based research aims to explore the importance of communication process within the work setting and to investigate roles of tutors in facilitating communication to overcome social barriers in constructing knowledge during online learning-teaching process. The research has qualitative and inductive nature that action research approach is chosen to change professional practices through collaborative activities. Therefore, focus group, trainings, in-depth interviews, self-reports and researcher diary are used as data collection techniques for each action. This proposal is part of ongoing research project that process is aimed to be shared with academic community.     

Synchronization-Oriented Placement and Retrieval Strategies for Delay-Sensitive Media Streams

Multimedia data include text,image,audio and video,etc.Recent developments and advances in the areas of mass storage technology and high speed networks make it feasible for multimedia computing systems to offer services such as multimedia e-mial,teleconferencing and various vivid games.The storage and retrieval of multimedia data are two of the most important technologies in the futre multimedia systems.This paper analyzes the synchronization requirements of the delay-sensitive media streams,classifies the synchronization hierarchically and proposes several effective strategies for the intra-media and inter-media data placement problems.     

WNN-Based Network Security Situation Quantitative Prediction Method and Its Optimization

The accurate and real-time prediction of network security situation is the premise and basis of preventing intrusions and attacks in a large-scale network. In order to predict the security situation more accurately, a quantitative prediction method of network security situation based on Wavelet Neural Network with Genetic Algorithm （GAWNN） is proposed. After analyzing the past and the current network security situation in detail, we build a network security situation prediction model based on wavelet neural network that is optimized by the improved genetic algorithm and then adopt GAWNN to predict the non-linear time series of network security situation. Simulation experiments prove that the proposed method has advantages over Wavelet Neural Network （WNN） method and Back Propagation Neural Network （BPNN） method with the same architecture in convergence speed, functional approximation and prediction accuracy. What is more, system security tendency and laws by which security analyzers and administrators can adjust security policies in near real-time are revealed from the prediction results as early as possible.     

Real-time condition monitoring and fault diagnosis in switched reluctance motors with Kohonen neural network

The faults in switched reluctance motors （SRMs） were detected and diagnosed in real time with the Kohonen neural network. When a fault happens, both financial losses and undesired situations may occur. For these reasons, it is important to detect the incipient faults of SRMs and to diagnose which faults have occurred. In this study, a test rig was realized to determine the healthy and faulty conditions of SRMs. A data set for the Kohonen neural network was created with implemented measurements. A graphical user interface （GUI） was created in Matlab to test the performance of the Kohonen artificial neural network in real time. The data of the SRM was transferred to this software with a data acquisition card. The condition of the motor was monitored by marking the data measured in real time on the weight position graph of the Kohonen neural network. This test rig is capable of real-time monitoring of the condition of SRMs, which are used with intermittent or continuous operation, and is capable of de- tecting and diagnosing the faults that may occur in the motor. The Kohonen neural network used for detection and diagnosis of faults of the SRM in real time with Matlab GUI was embedded in an STM32 processor. A prototype with the STM32 processor was developed to detect and diagnose the faults of SRMs independent of computers.     

Communication Between Speech Production and Perception Within the Brain——-Observation and Simulation

Realization of an intelligent human-machine interface requires us to investigate human mechanisms and learn from them. This study focuses on communication between speech production and perception within human brain and realizing it in an artificial system. A physiological research study based on electromyographic signals （Honda, 1996） suggested that speech communication in human brain might be based on a topological mapping between speech production and perception, according to an analogous topology between motor and sensory representations. Following this hypothesis, this study first investigated the topologies of the vowel system across the motor, kinematic, and acoustic spaces by means of a model simulation, and then examined the linkage between vowel production and perception in terms of a transformed auditory feedback （TAF） experiment. The model simulation indicated that there exists an invariant mapping from muscle activations （motor space） to articulations （kinematic space） via a coordinate consisting of force-dependent equilibrium positions, and the mapping from the motor space to kinematic space is unique. The motor-kinematic-acoustic deduction in the model simulation showed that the topologies were compatible from one space to another. In the TAF experiment, vowel production exhibited a compensatory response for a perturbation in the feedback sound. This implied that vowel production is controlled in reference to perception monitoring.     

A Privacy Taxonomy for the Management of Ubiquitous Environments

Pervasive and ubiquitous environments must handle the detection and management of users, devices and services, while guaranteeing the privacy of both the users and the environment itself. Current techniques for handling privacy found in the literature treating the subject in various ways, while concentrating on the device management, communication protocols, user profiles and environmental access. This paper examines a control model for privacy in pervasive environments from the perspective of the environment. A prototype was devised and tested to validate the generic model of privacy which was also used to compare taxonomic concepts in the literature. Moreover, the prototype was devised and tested to validate the generic model of privacy for control and manage various users, devices and environments and so on. The prototype was based on Percontrol （a system for pervasive user management）, which was only intended to identify users using Wi-Fi, and now it is capable of managing temperature, luminosity and other preferences, measured by a WSN （wireless sensor network） embedded to Percontrol, and the data treatment is done by an ANN （artificial neural network）. Results confirmed the viability of device detection with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and RFID （radio frequency identification） for an increases slight of the latency in registering new devices on the system.     

ADOMN： Asymmetric-Path Delay Optimization in Mobile Network for multi-homing SCTP multimedia transport

Multimedia applications, in particular real-time conversations with voice or video are very demanding of network quality parameters, especially in a mobile wireless scenario. End-to-End delay is a primary concern for mobile multi-homed SCTP multimedia transport, especially asymmetric path selection based on lowest delay. Using the emulated application of bulk data transfer, existing transport schemes based on asymmetric path delay selection are investigated and a new approach called Asymmetric-path is presented Delay Optimization in Mobile Network （ADOMN） based on lowest delay path taking into account the dynamic asymmetric over the available routes to reduce the limitation of existing scheme and to further improve the performance of mobile multi-homed SCTP multimedia transport. An example is provided to show how a mutlimedia application in mobile network could benefit from this approach.     

A semi-Markov model for post-earthquake emergency response in a smart city

An earthquake significant on the Richter scale occurring in an area with a high population density requires an effective and equitable emergency response plan. Emergency resources are usually located in so-called responding centers. One of the first problems faced by disaster-response management personnel in the rapidly degrading post-earthquake conditions is to gage the hazard rate to which the disaster-affected area is subjected, estimate the time taken to bring the situation under control, also called restoration time, and select the appropriate responding center for relief-and-rescue activities. In this paper, we propose an elaborate semi-Markov model to capture the stochastic dynamics of the events that follow an earthquake, which will be used to quantify the hazard rate to which people are exposed and estimate the restoration time. The model will be further used, via dynamic programming, to determine the appropriate responding center. Our proposed model can be employed in conjunction with a variety of hazard scales and by collecting data on a few parameters related to emergency management. The model will be particularly useful in a smart city, where historic data on events following an earthquake would be systematically and accurately recorded.     

The Impact of Experience and Perception on the Efficiency of E-procurement in Malaysia

The technology of E-procurement becomes more popular in many developed countries due to its accuracy in decision making for big projects that enhance the public bidding process for development projects in any country. The experience of employees who operate the system of E-procurement and the perception of users who bid for projects are essential to ensure the efticiency of procurement and the whole bidding process for public projects. This paper examined the impact of employee＇s experience on the efficiency of E-procurement systems in public agencies. In addition, we attempt to examine the perception factor of using E-procurement systems with regard to users in the seller side. A survey was conducted to identify the impact of experience and perception on the efficiency towards adoption and use of E-procurement system among users who working in firms participated in online bidding for public agencies projects, and employees who are working in E-procurement department in government administrations Malaysian government. A total of 80 questionnaires were collected and the data were analyzed to look at the level of the impact of experience and perception in E-procurement users. The general findings indicate a positive attitude experience and perception among the users in using the E-procurement.     

Role of Metacognition in Mathematical Problem Solving Process of Permutations and Combinations--Basic Study for CAI Software Development

When solving a mathematical problem, we sometimes encounter a situation where we can not reach a correct answer in spite of acquiring knowledge and formula necessary for the solution. The reason can be attributed to the lack in metacognitive abilities. Metacognitive abilities consist of comparing the difficulty of problem with own ability, proper plan of solution process, and conscious monitoring and control of solution process. The role and importance of metacognitive ability in mathematical problem solving of permutations and combinations was explored. Participants were required to solve five practical problems related to permutations and combinations. For each problem, the solution process was divided into： （1） understanding （recognition） of mathematical problem; （2） plan of solution; （3） execution of solution. Participants were also required to rate the anticipation whether they could solve it or not, and to rate the confidence of their own answer. According to the total score of five problems, the participants were categorized into the group of the high test score and the group of the low test score. As a result, at the plan and the execution processes, statistically significant differences were detected between the high and the low score groups. As for the rating on the anticipation of result and the confidence of own answer, no significant differences were found between both groups. Moreover, the relationship between the score of plan process and the score of execution process was statistically correlated. In other words, the more proper the plan process was conducted, the more proper solution the participants reached. In such a way, the importance of metacognitive ability in the solving process, especially the plan ability, was suggested.