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Reliable broadband satellite-integrated network design through propagation and networking solutions
No full textSatellites will play an indispensable role in the deployment of commercial networks to meet an increasing demand for supporting multimedia services at high data rates. Next generation satellite systems, operating at high frequency bands offer large bandwidth and are able to provide broadband services. To interface satellite links with existing terrestrial networks for providing communication access to a variety of users directly, several performance issues need to be addressed. Current thesis presents a technically viable satellite-integrated network model that is efficient in carrying broadband services to users over a wide scattered area.
Accurate prediction of attenuation level is necessary for a reliable network model to operate with required service availability. Long term rainfall data has been analysed to characterise attenuation level at a selected region such as Dhaka. It is shown that rainfall is highly seasonal and attenuation level is quite high during monsoon. However, the seasonal behaviour of rainfall can be exploited to improve the link availability. Radar and rain gauge measurements at Sparsholt are also used to find rain cell size distribution, which is an important factor in site diversity implementation to combat severe rain fade. It is found that convective rain cell has extension in the region of 10 km.
The network model is designed with dimensioning the effective bandwidth to support a number of users over the satellite link by taking into account the multimedia traffic characteristics. Concatenated coding, a robust coding scheme is implemented to improve the link quality at a level required to deliver broadband services. The ITU-T performance objectives of 7.5×10 for CLR and 1.4×10 for CER over satellite links are met at a required Eb/No of 2.95 dB and 2.88 dB respectively. Different enhancement mechanisms for optimum TCP performance are implemented to combat the large propagation delay associated with a satellite link. It is revealed through the simulation that TCP performance over a satellite link is as efficient as terrestrial links with these enhancement mechanisms
Finally, the overall performance of the designed network is evaluated through link budget analysis and simulation. An innovative downlink power control strategy has been implemented to maintain the link during the rainiest months. The interference level due to high power satellite transmission in the designed system is also calculated to protect other existing communication links sharing the same frequency bands.
A feasible broadband network designed with characterising propagation as well as networking issues will efficiently deliver broadband communication services to a large population promptly and in a cost-effective manner. Such a network solution will be in the realm of current R & D towards broadband satellite networks
Framework for the implementation of an enhanced virtual design studio in the architecture education curriculum of the United Arab Emirates : the virtual creative and collaborative studio
Get PDFBeing a rapidly developing country the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has realised the need for highly qualified and properly skilled manpower to cope with the country‟s ambitious development plans. This has resulted in high investments in education and training in the UAE. The government facilitated high technological tools for education. These tools suffered from underutilisation and a failure to be properly integrated in the curricula. The literature review indicates that today‟s knowledge-driven economy demands a workforce equipped with complex skills such as creativity and collaboration. Universities must not only teach the necessary technical skills and knowledge, but also the culture of creativity and teamwork. The learning theories emphasise the importance of learning by doing and collaboration processes to achieve effective learning. Learning theories also emphasise the importance of teaching creative skills to the students. These approaches are congruent with use of technologies, such as visual design studio (VDS), for the purpose of architecture education in design courses, but such use is lacking in the UAE. The present research focuses on implementing and evaluating technologies such as the VDS in architecture education in an attempt to formulate a framework for implementing technologies combined by creative and collaborative skills in the UAE.
Since implementing a new technology into education practice is complex task, this work will formulate a framework that will help in shifting from the traditional learning to learning with technology. This work will take into consideration factors such as pedagogical issues, collaboration creative work and architecture practice and industrial needs in the UAE.
The aim of the current research is to formulate a framework for implementing VDS at the conceptual end of the architecture design education in the UAE.
This research will apply an action research method framework. The action research will be generated into three phases. Each phase will consist of three stages, the descriptive stage which will analyse the need and criteria of the method, the constructive stage which will include the process involved in constructing the framework and the evaluative stage which will include the testing and evaluation. The resulting framework should satisfy the UAE‟s needof advanced technological tools for enhancing design education taking in consideration the socio-cultural dimension of the UAE.
As technology is changing rapidly; future research should concentrate on adding further technological tools such as mobile learning. Also as this work provided a framework for integrating technology in architecture design education, yet it is not limited to this discipline only. Other disciplines could benefit from this emerging model and further research could be conducted
Malware and steganography in hard disk firmware
No full textThe hard disk drive remains the most commonly used form of storage media in both commercial and domestic computer systems. These drives can contain a vast range of data both of personal value and commercial significance. This paper focuses on two key areas; the potential for the drive operation to be impacted by malicious software and the possibility for the drive firmware to be manipulated to enable a form of steganography. Hard drive firmware is required for the correct operation of the disk drive in particular for dealing with errors arising due to natural wear as the drive ages. Where an area of the drive becomes unreliable due to wear and tear, the disk firmware which monitors the reliability of data access will copy the data from the failing area to a specially designated reserved area. The firmware remaps this data shift so the old data area and the original copy of the data are no longer accessible by the computer operating system. There are now a small number of commercially available devices, intended for data recovery, which can be used to modify the hard drive firmware components. This functionality can be used to conceal code on the disk drive, either as a form of steganography or to potentially include malicious code with the intention to infect or damage software or possibly system hardware. This paper discusses the potential problem generated by firmware being manipulated for malicious purposes
Radio drama handbook: audio drama in context and practice
No full textThe Radio Drama Handbook combines both theory and practice to lead, stepwise, to a full understanding of radio drama form. Broken down into two large sections, the first gives the reader an overview of English language radio drama in the US and UK and explains a variety of approaches to how radio can be understood to function as a dramatic and performative medium. The second section puts the academic groundwork into practice by leading the reader through the process of developing and creating a radio script and gives an understanding of the unique techniques demanded in radio performance skills. With a wide selection of case studies and practical exercises to make the book engaging and, above all, useful, the authors analyze War of the Worlds, We’re Alive: A Story of Survival, and The Terrifying Tale of Sweeney Todd! Each section will be accompanied by practical exercises and suggested activities. Practice oriented and teacher/student friendly, this handbook is sure to become the new standard for all radio drama courses
Designing (for) experiences in photorealistic VR environments
No full textThis paper investigates the role of aesthetics in the design of “intended” experiences in photorealistic virtual reality (VR) environments. It is motivated by the very notion that the aesthetic potential of photorealistic VR content is, and continues to be, underestimated whilst the emphasis on the development of newer and more efficient visualisation technologies to create new and exciting VR experiences increases. Challenging this, the paper looks beyond the technological (and the more traditional human computer interaction approaches that have primarily focused on the performance and efficiency issues of the technology) in order to explore more human values and the experiential side of VR. It focuses on the design of an “engaged interaction” and in doing so, implements a comparative study to explore how the strategic patterning of the aesthetic elements (particularly colour) within a photorealistic VR environment can allow for the design of a certain experience. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates that aesthetics and the “engaged interaction” can play an important role in getting to the heart of the photorealistic VR “user” experience. It highlights how we might design for (i.e. suggest, coax and guide) an “intended” VR experience
EnTag: enhancing social tagging for discovery
No full textThe EnTag (Enhanced Tagging for Discovery) project investigated the effect on indexing and retrieval when using only social tagging versus when using social tagging in combination with suggestions from a controlled vocabulary. Two different contexts were explored: tagging by readers of a digital collection and tagging by authors in an institutional repository; also two different controlled vocabularies were examined, Dewey Decimal Classification and ACM Computing Classification Scheme. For each context a separate demonstrator was developed and a user study conducted. The results showed the importance of controlled vocabulary suggestions for both indexing and retrieval: to help produce ideas of tags to use, to make it easier to find focus for the tagging, as well as to ensure consistency and increase the number of access points in retrieval. The value and usefulness of the suggestions proved to be dependent on the quality of the suggestions, both in terms of conceptual relevance to the user and in appropriateness of the terminology. The participants themselves could also see the advantages of controlled vocabulary terms for retrieval if the terms used were from an authoritative source
Multi-scale data storage schemes for spatial information systems
Get PDFThis thesis documents a research project that has led to the design and prototype
implementation of several data storage schemes suited to the efficient multi-scale
representation of integrated spatial data. Spatial information systems will benefit from
having data models which allow for data to be viewed and analysed at various levels
of detail, while the integration of data from different sources will lead to a more
accurate representation of reality.
The work has addressed two specific problems. The first concerns the design of an
integrated multi-scale data model suited for use within Geographical Information
Systems. This has led to the development of two data models, each of which allow for
the integration of terrain data and topographic data at multiple levels of detail. The
models are based on a combination of adapted versions of three previous data
structures, namely, the constrained Delaunay pyramid, the line generalisation tree and
the fixed grid.
The second specific problem addressed in this thesis has been the development of an
integrated multi-scale 3-D geological data model, for use within a Geoscientific
Information System. This has resulted in a data storage scheme which enables the
integration of terrain data, geological outcrop data and borehole data at various levels
of detail.
The thesis also presents details of prototype database implementations of each of the
new data storage schemes. These implementations have served to demonstrate the
feasibility and benefits of an integrated multi-scale approach.
The research has also brought to light some areas that will need further research before
fully functional systems are produced. The final chapter contains, in addition to
conclusions made as a result of the research to date, a summary of some of these areas
that require future work
No contest: theorizing power through aspects of health and social care policy in the wake of the demise of the internal market in NHS Wales
Get PDFFollowing in the footsteps of Neitzsche (1968) and Foucault (1980), Clegg et al
(2006) and Haugaard and Clegg (2009) have argued that power is the most
central concept in the analysis of organization and organizing. The desirability of
further developing the theorization of power in health and social care policy in the
United Kingdom has been identified in a number of recent publications (Hunter,
2008; Crinson, 2009; Ham, 2009).
This critical overview analyzes relative power to connect policy at the macro level
(ending the internal market in NHS Wales) with specific policy issues
encompassed by the four projects within the portfolio on:
• locality commissioning;
• delayed transfers of care;
• governance, incentives and integration; and
• safeguarding adults.
The contribution to knowledge that flows from this critical overview: identifies that theorizing power in health and social care policy may help to
explain apparent disconnections between policy intent and the effect of
policy in practice in the context of post-devolution Wales;
• suggests that, at its most extreme, neglecting to take into account the role
of power in the design, implementation and review of policy in this particular
policy arena becomes a matter of life and death; and
• proposes that exploring power in health and social care policy through
Foucauldian-informed critical discourse analysis of relative power could to
some extent facilitate translation of policy aspirations into practice
Learning organization principles and processes : UK construction organization experiences
Get PDFThe study reported herein addresses the research question, "To what extent do
excellent performing UK construction contracting organizations
demonstrate and employ recognized Learning Organization processes?" It
utilized a case-study based approach as that approach was seen as being most
useful for exploring the processes that may or may not have been clearly defined by
each participating organization. The study sought to move beyond the theories of
knowledge created by the accepted seminal works on The Learning Organization
model and the largely positivist works on construction contractor performance,
which have focussed on ‘output’ measures only.
The literature reviewed indicated minimal understanding of excellent contractor
performance from the perspective of the customer within the construction industry
and even less understanding of the practical application of Learning Organization
processes within the industry. It suggested the need for research to address the
issue by examining how construction customers viewed excellent contractor
performance and what processes excellent performing contractors actually
employed.
The assumption behind this research is that the organization adapts and responds to
its environment and takes action to survive and flourish dependent upon its
understating of that environment. This is the same behaviour as a living organism in nature displays, and thus requires the researcher to view the organization as a
sentient being. Such a view underscores the epistemological perspective, that is the
assumption of what knowledge is and how it may be discovered, adopted in this
thesis. The research herein reported therefore follows a post-positivist standpoint.
The methodological position for the research sits within a functionalist paradigm, a
paradigm that enables consideration of the participating organizations within the
construction industry to be viewed as a ‘whole’ and as having interrelated parts. This
position was considered to be the most useful for the research.
The particular approach chosen was that of multiple case studies carried out on the
same subject. Carrying out multiple case studies across different organizations
provided case-based themes, which was seen to give the research a greater
credibility. By definition, the method was therefore one of a collective case study (Creswell, 2007), where several cases were brought to bear on a single issue. It was
intended to draw practical examples of Learning Organizations together so that the
commonalities and differences between and among them could be integrated in a
reformulated Learning Organization model for the construction industry.
During the data collection phase, two elements of the research were abandoned as
unnecessary and impractical respectively. The unnecessary element was the
questionnaire element of the contractor case studies, which was abandoned due to
the breadth and depth of data gathered through the other elements of the research
(interviews, focus groups and field observation). The impractical element was the
intended comparative study on poor performing contractors. This was abandoned as
customers almost without fail noted that poor performing contractors were generally
not retained on their programmes and therefore their supply chains tended only to
range in performance from adequate to excellent. Secondly, it was realized following
discussions with customers that poor performers were likely to be aware of their
poor performing status and therefore be unlikely to want to participate in the
research.
The customer organizations identified a number of clear areas where they identified
excellent contractor performance. The clear position was that the standard output
performance indicators of project completion to time, cost, quality, and health and safety were no longer indicators of excellent performance in the industry. These
indicators were now the minimum performance required to satisfy the customer and
there was seen to be a further suite of more behavioural measures which were the
indicators of excellent performance. These findings were drawn together in a single
model for procurement and performance management.
The contracting organizations nominated as excellent performers fell largely into the
‘medium sized’ bracket of the construction industry. Indeed, some of the
participating customers noted that the larger contractors were actually poorer
performers at behavioural aspects of service delivery. The nominated contractors’
processes were examined against the Learning Organization framework provided in
Senge et al (1990, 1994) to establish the extent to which recognized Learning
Organization processes were being employed. It was noted in the conclusions that
whilst all of the organizations employed some Learning Organization processes, none
could be said to be a model Learning Organization possessing all of the processes
which Senge et al (1990, 1994) suggested. The fact that each organization
possessed some Learning Organization processes was accepted against the critique of Ortenblad (2007) that Senge et al’s (1990, 1994) model is all-encompassing in
terms of accepting processes into the Learning Organization model.
Implications for industry practice were identified based upon the backdrop of
procurement and performance management. It was argued that, based on what is
noted as really important to construction customer organizations, the procurement
and performance management functions should be better aligned to identify
Learning Organization processes and their manifestation as excellent contractor
performance from the perspective of the customer. For contractor organizations,
there was identified a need to attend to developing Learning Organization processes.
There also appeared to be a need for the customer to support the journey of their
contractors towards becoming a Learning Organization.
Senge et al’s (1990, 1994) model was then adapted for the construction industry to
reflect this need for customer involvement if the contractor was to adopt Learning
Organization processes. This adaptation was considered necessary due to the
construction industry model of the customer being more involved in the design and
construction phases of their product, coupled with the fact that a single construction
customer can represent a large volume of their contractors’ turnover (up to 20% is
not uncommon). Furthermore, the low contractor profit margins driven by a lowest
price tendering culture (often 2-3%) leave little money for internal investment. The support of an informed customer which does not use a lowest price tendering
process was therefore deemed necessary.
A number of recommendations for further research may be seen to emerge from this
study. Questions were raised as to the reason why larger organizations do not
appear as able to provide behavioural excellent performance as medium sized
contractors which was considered to be an area for further exploration. In addition,
the concept of ‘family’ atmosphere (raised several times by participants during the
contractor case studies) and its impact upon the ability for the organization to learn
and provide excellent performance was seen to be worthy of further study. Finally,
there was deemed to be the potential to examine the applicability of the extended
Learning Organization model developed herein to other industries and/or
organizational cultures
How do public servants perceive the notion of civic virtue?
Get PDFOrganisational citizenship behaviour has been an active field of research for over three
decades with research typically focusing on helpful and sportsmanlike behaviours or,
conversely, examining destructive or criminal acts. Between these two is the frequently
ignored civic virtue which includes questioning, making suggestions and challenging
organisational norms. Civic virtue is the least researched, least performed, and the least
popular organisational behaviour with it often being deemed an act of deviancy. Yet
importantly, in terms of the transforming public service agenda, it is also the organisational
behaviour that links most closely with organisational improvement.
In pursuing this under-researched field, interpretivism provides a salient philosophical
framework for the operationalisation of the thesis which utilises an in-depth qualitative
approach to explore the lived realities of public servants, and seeks to advance the limited
knowledge of civic virtue, set against the backdrop of public service citizenship.
Using the lens of symbolic interactionism the thesis contributes an incremental advance in
research method; specifically projective image elicitation, by using the metaphorical power of
contextualised cartoon images to explore individuals’ perception of the workplace and their The thesis proposes a contribution to theory in recommending that public service citizenship
promotes a predilection to bifurcate behaviours demonstrated by others and self into the act
and underpinning values. Within public services this interpretative process gives precedence
to the underpinning values; and promotes an environment where disdained behaviours are
pardoned if the underpinning values are deemed honourable. This concept is termed value
governance.
Drawing on value governance, a model emerged which indicates that public servants
predominately enact civic virtue when they perceive their values are seriously contested;
otherwise their collectivist tendencies are dominant The discovery of value governance is significant in informing the conception of a dialogic
public service citizenship; a citizenship which has its foundation in publicness but which is
also able to face the challenges of civicness