Search

Recently, Federated Learning (FL) has been explored as a new paradigm that preserves both data privacy and end-users knowledge while reducing latency during model training. While often applied between a central server and the edge devices, FL deals with a wide range of end-user applications and devices. Given the Internet of Things (IoT) current popularity, its relevance and its penetration in several new application domains, this work examines the new challenges faced when combining IoT with the classic FL model. The limited resources of IoT edge devices require careful adaptation of the way how FL should be structured in this scenario. In addition, since FL is a distributed paradigm that shares deep learning artifacts through a network, there are also communication issues reminiscent to IoT networks that need special consideration. Thus, it is necessary to optimize the use of both processing and communication resources when considering the use of IoT edge devices as part of a FL. This paper systematically reviews current advances and steps taken towards dealing with resource optimization when using FL as part of IoT scenarios. We examine the published works over the last ten years and discuss the main goals, scenarios, and developed solutions to solve the problems encountered. We also present the main metrics used to quantify the effectiveness and to evaluate the performance of existing IoT based architectures with FL support. • Federated Learning preserves data privacy and end-users knowledge. • Federated Learning deals with a wide range of end-user applications and devices. • Internet of Things application offers a substantial source of data. • Federated Learning is seen as a suitable approach for building smart IoT systems. • Federated Learning and IoT integration present peculiar IoT-scenario challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated biotechnology is a quickly-approaching future legal issue that will blur the line between technology and person. The technology will likely run through some kind of software, and users of the technology will likely need to agree to some type of licensing agreement to use the software. End User License Agreements ("EULAs") as they exist today have terms and clauses that will be problematic when applied to an implanted artificial heart, a replacement for the human eye that enhances vision, or other types of integrated technology. Current FDA regulation and EULAs are insufficient to deal with the problems that technology integration will create. This Note argues for a new form of licensing agreement that will apply to integrated biotechnology, called a Biotechnology Licensing Agreement ("BTLA"). The BTLA will contain certain clauses that strengthen the bargaining power of the future cyborg when dealing with the creators of the integrated technology. Further, for creation of a new subdepartment of the FDA, the Biotechnology Adjudication Bureau ("BAB"). The BAB will handle regulation of integrated biotechnology and will assist cyborgs in the near future world of half-human half-machines. These solutions will dampen the problems and legal issues that will arise as the integrated biotechnology space becomes more mainstream and more pervasive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: User involvement is widely accepted as key for designing effective applied games for health. This especially holds true for children and young people as target audiences, whose abilities, needs, and preferences can diverge substantially from those of adult designers and players. Nevertheless, there is little shared knowledge about how concretely children and young people have been involved in the design of applied games, let alone consensus guidance on how to do so effectively. Objective: The aim of this scoping review was to describe which user involvement methods have been used in the design of applied games with children and young people, how these methods were implemented, and in what roles children and young people were involved as well as what factors affected their involvement. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search and selection across the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and Web of Science databases using State of the Art through Systematic Review software for screening, selection, and data extraction. We then conducted a qualitative content analysis on the extracted data using NVivo. Results: We retrieved 1085 records, of which 47 (4.33%) met the eligibility criteria. The chief involvement methods were participatory design (20/47, 43%) and co-design (16/47, 37%), spanning a wide range of 45 concrete activities with paper prototyping, group discussions, and playtesting being the most frequent. In only half of the studies (24/47, 51%), children and young people participated as true design partners. Our qualitative content analysis suggested 5 factors that affect their successful involvement: comprehension, cohesion, confidence, accessibility, and time constraints. Conclusions: Co-design, participatory design, and similar high-level labels that are currently used in the field gloss over very uneven degrees of participation in design and a wide variety of implementations that greatly affect actual user involvement. This field would benefit from more careful consideration and documentation of the reason of user involvement. Future research should explore concrete activities and configurations that can address the common challenges of involving children and young people, such as comprehension, cohesion, confidence, and accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-centered design methods should be implemented throughout the client information system (CIS) development process to understand social welfare professionals' needs, tasks, and contexts of use. The aim of this study was to examine Finnish social welfare professionals' experiences of participating in CIS development.A national cross-sectional web-based survey on the CIS experiences of social welfare professionals (1145 respondents) was conducted in Finland in spring 2019. This study focused on statements concerning the experiences of end users with CIS development and participation. The results are reported by professional and age groups.Half (50%) of the 1145 respondents had participated in CIS development. Half (56%) knew to whom and how to send feedback to software developers, but most (87%) indicated that changes and corrections were not made according to suggestions and quickly enough. The most preferred methods of participation were telling a person in charge of information systems development about usage problems (53%) and showing developers on site how professionals work (34%); 19% were not interested in participating.Social welfare professionals are willing to participate in CIS development, but vendors and social welfare provider organizations are underutilizing this resource. Social welfare informaticists are needed to interpret the needs of end users to software developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a digital resources ecosystem prototype of integrated tools and resources to support heritage-led regeneration of rural regions, thanks to a deeper understanding of the complexity of cultural natural landscapes throughout their historical and current development. The ecosystem is conceived as a distributed software platform establishing data ecosystem and open standards for the management of information, aimed at providing different services and applications to address the needs of the various end-users identified. The platform has been conceived and realised in the framework of a Horizon 2020 research project, with a view to building a set of holistic knowledge about rural regions and their cultural and natural heritage and making it available for long-lasting heritage-led territorial processes of change. It is the product of a multidisciplinary collaboration amongst heritage, digital humanities and ICTs experts, and combines data and methodologies from a range of approaches to humanities together with the customisation of effective digital tools. It has been designed for deployment also in cloud systems compliant with the Infrastructure-as-a-Service paradigm. All data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR data). It hosts and integrates different tools, making the data gathered with/for local stakeholders usable and making the same data re-usable within the tools' functions, generating integrated heritage knowledge. It comprises data on 19 rural pilot territories, where the tools and their integration have been developed and tested, while 62 more are partially included as additional territories which participate in certain activities within the project. The main testers for this platform and its functions are the local stakeholders of these territories. The paper describes and analyses the platform and its impact, discussing the integration of tools as an innovative approach that goes beyond the use of individual tools in shaping a multidimensional vision. It also offers an analysis of the potential of an integrated digital ecosystem in evidence-based and place-based regeneration strategies. Some reflections for developments and cooperation during the pandemic are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. I am writing in partial response to Chao Wang's paper, Invocation of National Security Exceptions under GATT Article XXI: Jurisdiction to Review and Standard of Review, published earlier in this I Journal i (18 Chinese JIL (2019), 695, https://doi: 10.1093/chinesejil/jmz029). In the European Union (EU), Council Regulation (EC) No 428/2009 (otherwise known as the European Union Dual-Use Regulation) establishes an EU-wide regime for the control of exports of dual-use items, software and technology. [Extracted from the article]

A Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) is a widely used security monitoring technology for detecting attacks against network services, beaconing activity of infected end user nodes, malware propagation, and other types of malicious network traffic. Unfortunately, NIDS technologies are known to generate a large number of alerts, with a significant proportion of them having low importance. During the last two decades, many machine learning and data mining based approaches have been proposed for highlighting high-importance alerts that require human attention. However, NIDS alert classification systems based on active learning have received marginal attention in the specialized research literature. This neglects the potential benefits of active learning which involves a human expert in the machine learning model life cycle. The current paper fills this research gap and studies the use of active learning techniques for NIDS alert classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User education programme refers to a well-planned programme of training and educating patrons on the skills and techniques of locating and retrieving library materials. User education is one of the important services of the library organized each year for undergraduates of higher institutions. User education is an academic programme designed by academic libraries to educate her user's especially undergraduates on how to effectively utilize library resources and services. The researchers explained that user education quickens the efforts of the clientele in retrieving and aids utilization of library materials through user education. More importantly, whether information comes from the internet, or the World Wide Web, Online databases, books or document, and other possible sources, users need user education for effective usage of information resources. And this prompted the various methods used for user education in Nigerian University Libraries such as library tour, library orientation, orientation lectures, library instruction, individual instruction, and class instruction to teach library literacy instructions. Users should expect timely access to quality information. This information must be accurate, relevant, comprehensive, and engaging. This can be done successfully by incorporating user education and training components into the academic library programmes and developing continuing professional education and training for the library and information professionals, as well as the end-users who will have to develop learning attitude and network related competence by the use information and communication technologies. This informed university authorities' decision to make frantic efforts to teach university students library literacy skills through formal library instruction programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the maintenance of large-scale information systems that are used for, among other purposes, border security in the European Union. My argument is that information systems do not always operate according to their design scripts. They materialize as unruly, unstable and failing infrastructures that are governed through maintenance in order to correct any identified functional anomalies and address potential future failures by adapting them to emerging technologies and the service needs of end-users (e.g. border guards, police). To conceptualize the maintenance labour through which information systems are governed, I synthesize ideas developed in Michel Foucault's work on biopolitics and governmentality with contributions that explore the agentic forces and proclivities of technoscientific matter. By unearthing the very mechanics of maintenance processes, I make two contributions to the literature that interrogates the digitization and smartening of border security. First, I demonstrate that attending to maintenance permits a more complete understanding of the agency of information systems. Second, I broaden the research agenda that explores border security as practice by directing attention towards the often invisible, but politically significant, labour of maintainers who, by rendering information systems functional, sustain the power to govern international mobility by digital means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: On the basis of ethical and methodological arguments, numerous calls have been made to increase the involvement of end users in the development of serious games (SGs). Involving end users in the development process is considered a way to give them power and control over educational software that is designed for them. It can also help identify areas for improvement in the design of SGs and improve their efficacy in targeted learning outcomes. However, no recognized guidelines or frameworks exist to guide end users' involvement in SG development. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe how end users are involved in the development of SGs for health care professions education. Methods: We examined the literature presenting the development of 45 SGs that had reached the stage of efficacy evaluation in randomized trials. One author performed data extraction using an ad hoc form based on a design and development framework for SGs. Data were then coded and synthesized on the basis of similarities. The coding scheme was refined iteratively with the involvement of a second author. Results are presented using frequencies and percentages. Results: End users' involvement was mentioned in the development of 21 of 45 SGs. The number of end users involved ranged from 12 to 36. End users were often involved in answering specific concerns that arose during the SG design (n=6) or in testing a prototype (n=12). In many cases, researchers solicited input from end users regarding the goals to reach (n=10) or the functional esthetics of the SGs (n=7). Most researchers used self-reported questionnaires (n=7). Conclusions: Researchers mentioned end users' involvement in the development of less than half of the identified SGs, and this involvement was also poorly described. These findings represent significant limitations to evaluating the impact of the involvement of end users on the efficacy of SGs and in making recommendations regarding their involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how electronic books (e-books) are used for scholarly activity. It focuses on the end-users of e-books in a case study which aimed to establish how scholars use and learn from e-books and the limitations of academic e-books. There have been a number of calls for more user-focussed research on e-books to understand how they are used rather than how often they are used. In-depth case studies of end user behaviour are, by design, very labour and resource intensive and generally limited in terms of the numbers of participants and the ability to generalise from analysis of the results. However, this type of research provides a valuable insight into how scholars interact with e-books to attempt to fulfil their information needs. These studies produce a very rich data set which enables the researcher to understand how scholars use, and wish to use, e-books. Analysis of our empirical results, together with those obtained from previous research examining user needs and experiences of e-books, has enabled us to draw general conclusions about what is required in future e-book design and development. More specifically, we present a typology of e-book interactions relevant to the design of e-books (content and features) and to library/academic instruction in the effective use of e-books (‘e-book literacy’). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents the corpus-based lexicographical prototype that was developed within the framework of the project Lexik des gesprochenen Deutsch (=LeGeDe) as a thirdparty funded project. Research results regarding the information offered in dictionaries have shown that there is a necessity for information on spoken lexis and its interactional functions. The resulting LeGeDe-prototype is based on these needs and desiderata and is thus an innovative example for the adequate representation of spoken language in online dictionaries. It is available online since September 2019 (https://www.owid.de/legede/). In the following sections, after first focusing on the presentation of the project's goals, the data basis, the intended end user, and the applied methods, we will illustrate the microstructure of the prototype and the information provided in a dictionary entry based on the lemma eben. Finally, we will summarize innovative aspects that are important for the implementation of such a resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the legal efficacy of terms found in the end-user licences (EULAs) of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). The article focuses on selected terms in the EULAs of well-known MMORPGs, Everquest and Runescape as well as a more recent MMORPG, Path of Exile. Although there are many examples of inappropriate and unenforceable terms in EULAs, computer games provide a particularly salient example. Eager for access to a game, players accept the EULA without question and, unaware of their rights or keen to avoid costly litigation, rarely challenge the terms. Given the value of the games industry to the international economy, the article recommends that international guidance for EULA content is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author explores the theory and practice of resource sharing in the OCLC cooperative. History of the OCLC Interlibrary Loan subsystem and subsequent developments through 2008 are reviewed, and prospects for the future are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El poder de las computadoras se ha extendido más allá del simple procesamiento de datos, convirtiéndose en una asistente para la gestión de información. Mantener protegida la información, díganse los datos personales, es objetivo común de productores, clientes y usuarios finales del software. Esta es una ardua tarea, aún más, si se considera el volumen de datos personales manejados por software actualmente. El principio de Protección por Diseño, promueve una visión de futuro donde la privacidad no puede ser garantizada sólo a través del cumplimiento de los marcos regulatorios; más bien, debe convertirse en el modo de operación predeterminado de cada organización. La presente investigación pretende demostrar que la implementación del principio de Protección por Diseño en el proceso de desarrollo de software, desde etapas tempranas del proceso y manteniendo una estrecha vinculación con el usuario final, permitirá garantizar la seguridad del producto resultante. El resultado más relevante fue la obtención de un marco conceptual, evidenciando la relación bidireccional existente entre el principio de Protección por Diseño, la calidad de software y la satisfacción del usuario final. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantitative field study measured end-user availability, knowledge and use levels of adjustable office chair functions in Korea-based office workers, together with their perceived barriers towards making adjustments. Fifty-one English-speaking workers were interviewed and surveyed in a related design. Results showed that of the number of adjustable functions available on their office chair (M = 5.39, SD = 2.3), participants knew fewer than half of them (M = 2.51, SD = 1.52) and used even less (M = 1.86, SD = 1.21). Fifty-three percent of participants knew two or less and 73% had used only two or less. Ten percent had used none. Results suggested physical needs (such as increased comfort or postural change) were a strong driver for previous chair adjustment behaviour. Perceived cognitive barriers played a more significant role in limiting chair adjustment knowledge and use than physical or organizational barriers. Highly adjustable office chairs have the possibility of satisfying the adjustment needs of most end-users. However, adjustable chair functions need to be both available and known in order to be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reuse is the activity of developing new software systems using software components (or artifacts) that are already proven and reliable. However, traditional reuse-based software development has difficulties in finding the components that have the proper information (feature) to match the developers' needs, or reusing a component without modification, because it has various and mixed information (features). In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a dynamic control technique to enhance the reusability of software components. In particular, this technique focuses on the reuse of software documents that are created during the software research and development processes. We define a new unit of document reuse as a microComponent; this is a basic unit of reuse defined with a section of a software document. Based on the microComponent, it is possible to fast find more suitable components from a large-scale document repository; to control the reuse granularity from a section to an entire document; and finally, to improve the reusability of existing reusable assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the wide spread usage of smart devices, adopting video contents service to the diverse end user's service environment is an essential process. The heterogeneity of end users' devices, usually referred as the device fragmentation, requires video transcoding which is a lossy process. Accordingly, the subsequent video quality degrading is inevitable. In such circumstances, minimizing perceptible quality loss of video is a key issue for the video contents service provider. However, the video quality loss caused in the process of transcoding is very difficult to measure. Because the "video quality" is a subjective term, it is almost impossible to estimate before video contents are delivered and actually serviced. To address this issue, many research efforts have been pursued for estimating subjective quality evaluation score using objective quality assessment metric. Structural Similarity (SSIM) is a well-known objective quality assessment method. Based on previous studies, this method has been used as a very effective quality assessment tool in video coding system. In this paper, we propose new video quality assessment metric using intensity variation analysis. The intensity metric-based video quality assessment has a high correlation with the SSIM regardless of the category of video contents, resolutions and even bitrate setting. The proposed method that measures inter-frame intensity variation (IV) is more efficient than SSIM in VBR transcoding system. Our experimental results show that the proposed video quality assessment shows up to 22 times faster than SSIM in the execution time. Ultimately, to take its advantage of the short latency and low execution overhead, IV-based video assessment is applicable to real on-demand transcoding and streaming environments while minimizing video quality degradation of transcoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the diverse virtual reality devices are developed and utilized. Particularly, the devices that recognize the motions of users such as griping hands and opening hands are issued to utilize the motions of the users as input methodology. Traditional research about motion recognition suggests user's motion estimation methods by calculating Bayesian probability after measuring the orientation of the motions by a Myo, which is one of contact-type motion recognition devices. However, the motion estimation methods have the problem of low motion estimation accuracy, given that orientation is defined by x, y, and z, which are calculated separately only considering the values of the corresponding axis. In order to improve motion estimation accuracy, motions should be estimated by considering the values of all axis. This paper proposes a method using genetic algorithm to calculate weights, which are applied to estimate motions through Bayesian probability by considering the values of all axis after measuring user's motions with a Myo. The proposed method consists of three steps. First, the Bayesian probability is calculated by considering the correlations of x, y, and z of the orientation of a Myo. Second, weights are determined by applying genetic algorithm. Third, motions are estimated through the Bayesian probability with the determined weights. Experiments were conducted to compare the Bayesian probability between the traditional method based on min/max and the proposed method, which showed that the proposed method had reduced the difference of the orientations by 32%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A method for supporting debugging of trigger-action rules. • A tool supporting the debugging method with the possibility to simulate the corresponding contexts of use. • A solution integrated in the tool for detecting possible conflicts amongst the trigger-action rules. • An empirical validation that the tool allows users to identify and correct mistakes in their trigger-action rules more accurately. Abstract End users need tools to enable them to control and personalise Internet of Things (IoT) applications, which may involve hundreds of interconnected objects. Trigger-action programming has shown to be a useful support for this purpose because it allows users to easily associate dynamic events with the activation of desired effects. End User Development (EUD) tools aim to allow even users without programming experience to define the behaviour of IoT applications. However, users may define rules triggering various actions that may be in conflict, or may specify rules that do not result in the intended behaviour. Although such situations can often occur, there seems to be a lack of tools able to help users understand whether the specified rules actually bring about the desired behaviour and, if not, the reasons why they fail. We present an original solution for filling this gap, which takes into account the specific aspects of trigger-action rules. We describe the design and implementation of this debugging support, and then discuss the results of a first user test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication designers have historically been accused of neglecting end-user perspectives, believing designers are experts at creating inspired designs. Codesign has been applied to many design fields, however developing methods for engaging end-users have had little traction in communication design practice. In an era of end-user engagement, communication designers are left wondering how and when to include end-users in the design process and if codesign offers any benefits to project outcomes. This study trialled codesign workshops across two communication design case studies. Both studies involved non-profit contexts where designers and staff co-created communication design strategies, one for sustainable cleaning in childcare centres and the other for asthma management and awareness. The findings reveal that structured, hands-on generative toolkits conducted in small groups, sparked conversation and prompted innovative ideas whereas evaluating ideas with ranking toolkits blocked dialogue and hindered idea progression. Evaluation tooolkits based on ranking ideas created unexpected barriers to engagement, as end-users disengaged from the codesign process. I argue codesign can benefit communication design when structured hands-on generative toolkits simulate a perceived familiar environment, creating a conversational forum for ideas to flow while participants enjoy creating things with their hands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IoT devices are diverse in their characteristics and made by many vendors, hence the inter-operation among them is difficult. Especially, end users can't make their own programs by do-it-yourselves. IFTTT and Zapier platforms are designed to help end users to make them inter-operable easily and prevail in these days. Their approach is categorized into a Trigger-Action-Programming, in which trigger conditions and actions are already made by professional programmers of several IoT vendors and end users composite them into their own applications easily. But, their drawback is that the composition can be made at once in the first level, hence end users can't make more complicated applications. Our approach is based on a dataflow programming paradigm which resembles the TAP in that the internal actions are triggered when all the inputs of a node are prepared. In our approach, a composition of some atomic nodes becomes another atomic node, so the composition would continue iteratively. This feature is so generous that several visual programming languages like LabView are relied on the approach for various fields. We propose the overall architecture of our system and explain them. We also present Internet of Things examples of our approach, which shows that atomic dataflow objects can be associated to produce composite dataflow objects. And they are also composited to make more complex applications iteratively. We compare IFTTT, Zapier, and our approach qualitatively and show that end users can make more diverse and flexible applications in our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This paper describes a model-driven approach that allows the automatic production of end user documentations that explain and illustrate the different concepts of a Domain-Specific Language (DSL). • The approach produces end user documentation from artifacts of the implementation phase of DSLs: the metamodel, the grammar, and models that cover all the concepts of a DSL. • Our implementation, called Docywood , targets two platforms: Markdown documentations for static web sites and Xtext code fragments for live documentation while modeling. • The evaluation exhibits that the proposed approach improves the correctness of ThingML models created by novice end users. Abstract Domain-specific languages (DSL) are developed for answering specific problems by leveraging the expertise of domain stakeholders. The development of DSLs requires a significant software engineering effort: editors, code generators, etc, must be developed to make a DSL usable. Documenting a DSL is also a major and time-consuming task required to promote it and address its learning curve. Recent research work in software language engineering focus on easing the development of DSLs. This work focuses on easing the production of documentation of textual DSLs. The API documentation domain identified challenges we adapted to DSL documentation. Based on these challenges we propose a model-driven approach that relies on DSL artifacts to extract information required to build documentation. Our implementation, called Docywood , targets two platforms: Markdown documentation for static web sites and Xtext code fragments for live documentation while modeling. We used Docywood on two DSLs, namely ThingML and Target Platform Definition. Feedback from end users and language designers exhibits qualitative benefits of the proposal with regard to the DSL documentation challenges. End user experiments conducted on ThingML and Target Platform Definition show benefits on the correctness of the created models when using Docywood on ThingML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Space Rider Programme, previously named Pride, is an ESA programme whose objective is to define and develop an affordable reusable European space transportation system to be launched by VEGA-C, to be used as a platform for several types of payload applications. Payloads and related applications strongly drive the definition of Space Rider mission and system, then an analysis of end user's needs has been necessary to adequately feed the design process. This paper reports a survey and an analysis with respect to the following payloads classes: 1- Free-Flyer (Micro-gravity experimentation and Radiation exposure); 2- In-Orbit Demonstrations and Validation for several technologies (Exploration, Orbital infrastructures servicing, Earth observation, Earth science, Telecommunication, Reentry); 3- In-Orbit applications (Earth monitoring and Satellites inspection). In particular, the analysis has been carried out with investigation of the current microgravity platforms and payloads needs, In-Orbit Demonstrations (IOD) flight opportunities status and demand from different stakeholders both on scientific and industrial side. Key assets of the Space Rider platform with respect to payload have been defined and the results of the work has been flow down into the identification of a set of requirements for the Space Rider mission and system focusing on main aspects as operations, mass, power, volume and interfaces. Highlights • The Space Rider Programme objective is to define and develop an affordable reusable European space transportation system. • Payloads and related applications strongly drive the definition of Space Rider mission and system. • An analysis of end user's needs has been necessary to adequately feed the design process. • This paper reports a survey and an analysis with respect to several payloads classes. • The results of the work have been translated in a set of mission and system requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the paramount research questions in the scientific community today is how to remotely assess user quality of experience (QoE) for a specific service. To this end, various user QoE assessment models have been developed; however, they are mostly based on the data gathered from controlled environment experimentation. The aim of this research was to model user QoE for the User Datagram Protocol-based video streaming service from the results of uncontrolled subjective tests. Specifically, using fuzzy logic, we have correlated the values of three objective network parameters (the packet loss rate and the number and duration of packet loss occurrences in one streaming session) with test subjects’ subjective perception about perceived quality distortions. The dependencies between different values of the parameters and the subjects’ perception of video quality were used to develop a no reference objective video quality assessment model for assessing user QoE. The key distinguishing feature of the developed model lays in the process of subjective evaluation, which was conducted with a panel of 602 test subjects who evaluated the quality of 1-h video in home environments. For this purpose, 72 different test sequences were prepared for rating. We showed that a strong positive linear relationship exists between the assessed QoE of the model and the Mean Opinion Scores of the subjects (a Pearson correlation coefficient equal to 0.8841). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of physics-based wave propagation predictions requires a considerable time commitment, a high level of expertise and extensive climate and reef data that are not always available when undertaking planning for management of coasts and coral reef ecosystems. Bayesian belief networks (BBNs) have at least three attributes that make them an excellent choice to communicate physics-based wave model predictions. First, BBNs subsume thousands of predictions to provide probabilistic outcomes. Second, by using prior probabilities, a practitioner can still obtain predictions of wave outcomes even when their knowledge of input parameters is incomplete. Third, BBNs can propagate evidence from outputs to inputs, which can be used to identify input conditions that are most likely to deliver a chosen outcome. These three attributes are tested and found to hold for a BBN developed for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis is put forward that, after three decades of stability, there is now the prospect of significant change in the vertical and horizontal structure of the mobile market place. On the supply side, significant factors are, first, the availability of a new and very powerful form of mobile connectivity in the shape of 5G, and second, software defined networking, which allows a single network to provide a variety of heterogeneous services or ‘slices’. On the demand side, the digital transformation of the whole economy (and not just the communications sector) creates the need for diverse communications functions operating in a universe with a much wider set of digitally transformed services. Mobile operators will find themselves contesting customer relationship with firms or other organisations providing these services in an integrated fashion, and thus risk replacing their direct link with end users with becoming the wholesale supplier of an expanded but ‘commoditised’ communications product. We may also observe fewer radio access networks; more competitive backhaul; and the (partial) vertical disintegration of mobile network operators. The regulatory changes implied may include heavier regulation of fewer RANs, and the need for market analyses to confront situations in which network operators sell more and more of their services to a variety of heterogeneous content and application providers – some of them exercising substantial levels of market power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the adoption of open API standards offers new services meaningful in the domain of health informatics and behavior change. We present our privacy-oriented solution to support personal data collection, distribution, and usage. Given the new General Data Protection Regulations in Europe, the proposed platform is designed with requirements in mind to position citizens as the controllers of their data. The proposed result uses NodeJS servers, OAuth protocol for Authentication and Authorization, a publish-subscribe semantic for real-time data notification and Cron for APIs without a notification strategy. It uses Distributed Data Protocol to control and securely provision data to distributed frameworks utilizing the data and those distributed applications are exemplified. The platform design is transparent and modularized for research projects and small businesses to set-up and manage, and to allow them to focus on the application layer utilizing personal information. This solution can easily be configured to support custom or new data sources with open API and can scale. In our use cases, maintaining the separate ecosystem services was trivial. The adopted distributed protocol was the most challenging to manage due to its high RAM usage. And implementing a fine-grained privacy control by end-users was challenging in an existing clinical enterprise system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Heuristic evaluation (HE) is an inspection method that can be used for identifying usability problems of health information systems. There is insufficient evidence to what extent these problems are experienced by users in their working environment. The objective of this study was to investigate the agreement of real end users of a health information system with the problems identified by HE.Methods: First, the emergency information system of educational hospitals in Kerman, Iran was evaluated by a heuristic evaluation. Then, a valid and reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.95) electronic questionnaire was designed based on the results of the first phase.Results: Among 127 identified problems, the highest number of problems was related to the "consistency and standards" heuristic (18.9%). The user agreement coefficient with heuristic results was 0.5. The highest agreement of the participants was on the problems related to the "help user recognize, diagnose and recover from errors" heuristic (78%). There was a significant relationship between participants age and work experience with a computer (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The agreement rate of real end users with the results of HE was at a medium level. Therefore, in some areas, the perception of evaluators in using this method is not consistent with the users experience with a system. This can result in identifying minor issues and ignoring important system-critical usability issues. The HE is appropriate for identifying specific problems, such as problems related to identifying and correcting errors, but in some areas, such as consistency and standards in the design of a system, it identifies minor or ineffective problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]