Effects of real‐time visual feedback on pre‐service teachers' singing

This pilot study focuses on the use real‐time visual feedback technology (VFT) in vocal training. The empirical research has two aims: to ascertain the effectiveness of the real‐time visual feedback software ‘Sing & See’ in the vocal training of pre‐service music teachers and the teachers' perspective on their experience with VFT. Forty participants from an undergraduate music teacher education programme were randomly assigned to three groups. The first two groups were assigned the teacher and student versions of Sing & See, respectively, and the third group served as a control group without access to the software. The experimental groups were given 12 weeks to use the software for vocal training on a self‐regulated basis. The technique of complex selections (TCS) was designed to assess the pitch accuracy and richness of vocal timbre. Pre‐ and post‐test singing tasks showed that the participants from the experimental groups significantly improved their vocal timbre. A questionnaire survey conducted after the training period found that most of the participants in the experimental s were positive about the effectiveness of VFT software in vocal training. As future leaders in the implementation of music education technology, pre‐service music teachers expressed a positive attitude towards the use of VFT as a technology‐enhanced learning (TEL) component in music education.     

Impact of class clustering in a multiclass FCFS queue with order-dependent service times

In multi-class queueing systems, customers of different classes can enter the system. When studying such systems, it is traditionally assumed that the different classes of customers occur randomly and independently in the arrival stream of customers in the system. This is often in contrast to the actual situation. Therefore, we study a multi-class system with so-called class clustering in the customer arrival stream, i.e., (Markovian) correlation occurs in the classes of consecutive customers. The system under investigation consists of one server that is able to serve two classes of customers. In addition, the service-time distribution of a customer depends on the equality or non-equality of its class with the class of the previous customer. This latter feature occurs frequently in practice. For instance, execution of the same task again can lead to both faster or slower processing times. The first case can occur when the execution of a different task entails resetting a machine, or loading new data, et cetera. The opposite situation appears, for instance, when execution of the same task requires postprocessing (such as cooling down or reinitialization of a machine). We deduce the probability generating function (pgf) of the system content, from which we can extract various performance measures, among which the mean values of the system content and the customer delay. We demonstrate that class clustering has a tremendous impact on the system performance, which highlights the necessity to include it in the performance assessment of any system in which it occurs.     

An open-source multi-DOF articulated robotic educational platform for autonomous object manipulation

This research presents an autonomous robotic framework for academic, vocational and training purpose. The platform is centred on a 6 Degree Of Freedom (DOF) serial robotic arm. The kinematic and dynamic models of the robot have been derived to facilitate controller design. An on-board camera to scan the arm workspace permits autonomous applications development. The sensory system consists of position feedback from each joint of the robot and a force sensor mounted at the arm gripper. External devices can be interfaced with the platform through digital and analog I/O ports of the robot controller. To enhance the learning outcome for beginners, higher level commands have been provided. Advanced users can tailor the platform by exploiting the open-source custom-developed hardware and software architectures. The efficacy of the proposed platform has been demonstrated by implementing two experiments; autonomous sorting of objects and controller design. The proposed platform finds its potential to teach technical courses (like Robotics, Control, Electronics, Image-processing and Computer vision) and to implement and validate advanced algorithms for object manipulation and grasping, trajectory generation, path planning, etc. It can also be employed in an industrial environment to test various strategies prior to their execution on actual manipulators.     

移动平台闸站监控系统的设计与实现

针对水利闸站监控系统对于应急信息和措施的需求, 提出了移动平台水利闸站监控系统。首先分析了系统的 整体框架结构, 然后实现了一套移动客户端软件完成水利闸站监控的功能。将手机客户端与云平台服务器相连, 通 过网络通信方式获取闸站现场传感器信息, 远程采集和存储数据, 客户端移动终端系统具有前端处理与计算能力通 过移动无线网络访问服务器, 实现了对多控制节点的远程监控。结果表明该系统能及时有效地获取闸站水利信息 并进行调度, 提高了水利信息化水平。     

Paramedics on the job: Dynamic trunk motion assessment at the workplace

Many paramedics' work accidents are related to physical aspects of the job, and the most affected body part is the low back. This study documents the trunk motion exposure of paramedics on the job. Nine paramedics were observed over 12 shifts (120 h). Trunk postures were recorded with the computer-assisted CUELA measurement system worn on the back like a knapsack. Average duration of an emergency call was 23.5 min. Sagittal trunk flexion of >40° and twisting rotation of >24° were observed in 21% and 17% of time-sampled postures. Medical care on the scene (44% of total time) involved prolonged flexed and twisted postures (∼10 s). The highest extreme sagittal trunk flexion (63°) and twisting rotation (40°) were observed during lifting activities, which lasted 2% of the total time. Paramedics adopted trunk motions that may significantly increase the risk of low back disorders during medical care and patient-handling activities.     

Cloud based intelligent system for delivering health care as a service

The promising potential of cloud computing and its convergence with technologies such as mobile computing, wireless networks, sensor technologies allows for creation and delivery of newer type of cloud services. In this paper, we advocate the use of cloud computing for the creation and management of cloud based health care services. As a representative case study, we design a Cloud Based Intelligent Health Care Service (CBIHCS) that performs real time monitoring of user health data for diagnosis of chronic illness such as diabetes. Advance body sensor components are utilized to gather user specific health data and store in cloud based storage repositories for subsequent analysis and classification. In addition, infrastructure level mechanisms are proposed to provide dynamic resource elasticity for CBIHCS. Experimental results demonstrate that classification accuracy of 92.59% is achieved with our prototype system and the predicted patterns of CPU usage offer better opportunities for adaptive resource elasticity.     

A low-cost real time virtual system for postural stability assessment at home

Background and objective

The degeneration of the balance control system in the elderly and in many pathologies requires measuring the equilibrium conditions very often. In clinical practice, equilibrium control is commonly evaluated by using a force platform (stabilometric platform) in a clinical environment.In this paper, we demonstrate how a simple movement analysis system, based on a 3D video camera and a 3D real time model reconstruction of the human body, can be used to collect information usually recorded by a physical stabilometric platform.

Methods

The algorithm used to reconstruct the human body model as a set of spheres is described and discussed. Moreover, experimental measurements and comparisons with data collected by a physical stabilometric platform are also reported. The measurements were collected on a set of 6 healthy subjects to whom a change in equilibrium condition was stimulated by performing an equilibrium task.

Results

The experimental results showed that more than 95% of data collected by the proposed method were not significantly different from those collected by the classic platform, thus confirming the usefulness of the proposed system.

Conclusions

The proposed virtual balance assessment system can be implemented at low cost (about 500$) and, for this reason, can be considered a home use medical device. On the contrary, astabilometric platform has a cost of about 10,000$ and requires periodical calibration. The proposed system does not require periodical calibration, as is necessary for stabilometric force platforms, and it is easy to use. In future, the proposed system with little integration can be used, besides being an emulator of a stabilometric platform, also to recognize and track, in real time, head, legs, arms and trunk, that is to collect information actually obtained by sophisticated optoelectronic systems.     

基于轨迹频率抑制的轨迹隐私保护方法

移动终端和定位技术的快速发展带来了轨迹大数据.研究者通过挖掘和分析发布的轨迹数据集,可获得一些有价值的信息.攻击者也可利用所掌握的知识对发布的轨迹数据集进行推理分析,以较高的概率推断出用户的隐私信息.轨迹抑制是一类实现隐私保护的重要方法,然而轨迹抑制的点数越多会造成数据效用越低.因此,在满足用户隐私需求的情况下,如何选择合理的抑制点来提高匿名处理后的数据效用是数据发布中要解决的重要问题.针对以上问题,文中提出两种基于轨迹频率的方案对轨迹数据进行匿名处理.第一种方案是根据情况抑制整条有问题的轨迹数据或向有问题的轨迹数据集中添加假数据;第二种方案是采用特定的轨迹局部抑制法对数据进行抑制处理.实验表明相对于已有方案,在满足同等隐私需求的情况下,文中方案处理后的数据效用提升了近30%.     

国产耐火砖在德士古水煤浆气化炉的使用

分析气化炉耐火材料损蚀原因及国产耐火砖在德士古水煤浆加压气化炉中的使用情况，使用结果证明，国产耐火砖可以替代进口砖，每年节约设备投资600万元左右。     

一种融合服务满意度的多因素感知云服务性能预测策略

提出了一种多因素感知的云服务性能预测策略,它基于综合权衡服务提供商的利益,通过合理定价和性能保障来量化和优化服务满意度,并以之驱动性能预测,并引入效用理论实现服务满意度的合理定价.最后通过模拟实验表明,它能够降低SLA破坏率,有效提高云服务的资源利用率.