Digital Commons Network^™

A Study On Wireless Communication Error Performance And Path Loss Prediction, Ismail Isnin

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

One channel model that characterises multipath fading effect of a wireless channel is called Flat Rayleigh Fading channel model. Given the properties of Flat Rayleigh Fading channel, an equation to find the capacity of a Flat Rayleigh fading channel with hard decision decoding is derived. The difference of power requirement to achieve the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) capacity over a Flat Rayleigh Fading channel fading is found to increase exponentially with Es /N0 . Upper and lower bounds of error performance of linear block codes over a Flat Rayleigh Fading channel are also studied. With the condition that the …

Video Quality Prediction For Video Over Wireless Access Networks (Umts And Wlan), Asiya Khan

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Transmission of video content over wireless access networks (in particular, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) and Third Generation Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (3G UMTS)) is growing exponentially and gaining popularity, and is predicted to expose new revenue streams for mobile network operators. However, the success of these video applications over wireless access networks very much depend on meeting the user’s Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Thus, it is highly desirable to be able to predict and, if appropriate, to control video quality to meet user’s QoS requirements. Video quality is affected by distortions caused by the encoder and the wireless …

Irish Business And Society: Governing, Participating And Transforming In The 21st Century, John Hogan, Paul Donnelly, Brendan O'Rourke

Books/Book Chapters

Irish Business and Society is a contemporary exploration of the wide-ranging debates surrounding the relationships between business and society in 21^st century Ireland, providing a context in which to question and inform our perspectives on both. The book consists of diverse and thought-provoking contributions from leading business researchers, economists, sociologists and political scientists from Ireland and abroad, which address five central themes:

-- The Making and Unmaking of the Celtic Tiger

-- Governance, Regulation & Justice

-- Partnership & Participation

-- The nature of Irish Borders within Ireland, Europe & the Wider World

-- Interests & Concerns in Contemporary …

Aligning Learning Outcomes With Professional Competencies In Geomatics Education, Audrey Martin, Eugene Mcgovern

Conference Papers

The Geomatics industry is a highly specialised field incorporating advanced technical instrumentation and complex measurement systems which form part of local, national and international Spatial Information Systems. As spatial information forms the basis for many aspects of construction, architecture, planning and development, the knowledge and skills required by the qualified Geomatics professional are varied. The professional surveyor must attain the required academic standard and satisfy professional criteria.

The BSc in Geomatics in the Technological University Dublin (DIT)is the only programme inIrelandproducing Geomatics professionals. It is accredited by a number of professional bodies including the Society of Chartered Surveyors (SCS) and …

The Impact Of Macular Pigment Augmentation On Visual Performance In Normal Subjects: Compass, John Nolan, James Loughman, Akkali Makunda, Jim Stack, Grainne Scanlon, Peter Davison, Stephen Beatty

Articles

This study was conducted to investigate whether augmentation of macular pigment (MP) enhances visual performance (VP). 121 normal subjects were recruited. The active (A) group consumed 12 mg of lutein (L) and 1 mg of zeaxanthin (Z) daily. MP optical density (MPOD) was assessed by customized heterochromatic flicker photometry. VP was assessed as best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), mesopic and photopic contrast sensitivity (CS), glare disability, photostress, and subjective visual function. Subjects were assessed at baseline; 3; 6; 12 months (V1, V2, V3 and V4, respectively). Central MPOD increased significantly in the A group (p < 0.05) but not in the placebo group (p > 0.05). This statistically …

Exploring Lecturers Self Perception Of Change In Teaching Habits, Roisin Donnelly

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Designing Together: Effective Strategies For Creating A Collaborative Curriculum To Support Academic Development, Noel Fitzpatrick, Jen Harvey

Books/Book Chapters

This publication has arisen out of collaborative work completed as part of the Learning Innovation Network (LIN) project funded under Strand 2 of the Irish Higher Education Authority (HEA) Strategic Initiative funded (SIF) sectoral project: Improving services to students and capacity building (2006-2010), involving all 13 Irish Institutes of Technology and the Technological University Dublin. One of the 3 objectives of this strand was to scope the parameters of an agreed Academic Development Programme. Since Sept 2008, a LIN Accredited Professional Development (APD) Sub-group has been working towards the establishment of a sustainable shared academic development programme that might be …

How Can We Nurture And Develop Creativity In First Year Design Students, Kerry Meakin

Theses

This research paper investigates the perceptions of first year third level design students regarding their creative thinking and use of creative strategies, while studying a first year design based curriculum in an Institute of Technology in Dublin. The research was conducted in a three-phase, sequential project. The first phase, questioned twenty seven students by issuing anonymous questionnaires to gather data on their methods of incubating design ideas, if they experienced any levels of anxiety when doing so, and their satisfaction levels in their design and creative abilities. Literature was reviewed to discover the attributes of those we perceive as creative …

Religiosity, Self-Control, And Antisocial Behavior: Religiosity As A Promotive And Protective Factor, Robert D. Laird, Loren D. Marks, Matthew D. Marrero

Faculty Publications

Three hypotheses with the potential to provide information on the role of religiosity as a promotive and protective factor in early adolescence were tested. Adolescents (N = 166, M age = 13 years, 49% female, 49% European American, 45% African American) and mothers reported their own personal importance of religion and the frequency of their attendance of religious services. Greater mother importance and attendance was associated with greater adolescent importance and attendance. Mother importance was indirectly linked to adolescent antisocial behavior through adolescent importance. Less adolescent importance and attendance were associated with low self-control and low self-control was associated …

Obtaining Speech Assets For Judgement Analysis On Low-Pass Filtered Emotional Speech, John Snel, Charlie Cullen

Conference papers

Investigating the emotional content in speech from acoustic characteristics requires separating the semantic con- tent from the acoustic channel. For natural emotional speech, a widely used method to separate the two channels is the use of cue masking. Our objective is to investigate the use of cue masking in non-acted emotional speech by analyzing the extent to which filtering impacts the perception of emotional content of the modified speech material. However, obtaining a corpus of emotional speech can be quite difficult whereby verifying the emotional content is an issue thoroughly discussed. Currently, speech research is showing a tendency toward constructing …

Trends In The Food And Beverage Sector Of The Hospitality Industry, Detta Melia

Conference papers

The hospitality sector in Ireland represents an important part of the tourism industry and comprises hotels, restaurants, pubs and clubs, guesthouses and self-catering operations. The largest component within the Irish hospitality sector is hotels. In addition to hotels, food and beverage operations comprise a significant proportion of the industry. These businesses operate in a highly competitive environment as a consequence of a number of factors. First, there is a downturn in the global and domestic economies with a corresponding decrease in business across the tourism industry (Failte Ireland, 2010; Pitta, 2010). Second, there has been a rise in market demand …

Beck Halstrøm (Sweden), Jennifer Manning, Thomas M. Cooney

Case Study

No abstract provided.

User Profile Construction In The Twin Personality-Based Recommender System, Alexandra Roshchina, John Cardiff, Paolo Rosso

Conference Papers

The information overload experienced by peo- ple who use online services and read user- generated content (e.g. product reviews and ratings) to make their decisions has led to the development of the so-called recommender systems. We address the problem of the large increase in the user-generated reviews, which are added to each day and consequently make it difficult for the user to obtain a clear picture of the quality of the facility in which they are interested.

In this paper, we describe the TWIN (“Tell me What I Need”) personality-based recom- mender system, the aim of which is to select …

Simulated Performance Intensity Functions, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Conference papers

Measuring speech intelligibility for different hearing aid fitting methods in a simulated environment would allow rapid prototyping and early design assessment. A simulated performance intensity function (SPIF) test methodology has been developed to allow experimentation using an auditory nerve model to predict listeners’ phoneme recognition. The test discriminates between normal hearing and progressively degrading levels of sensorineural hearing loss. Auditory nerve discharge patterns, presented as neurograms, can be subjectively ranked by visual inspection. Here, subjective inspection is substituted with an automated ranking using a new image quality metric that can quantify neurogram degradation in a consistent manner. This work reproduces …

Comparing Hearing Aid Algorithm Performance Using Simulated Performance Intensity Functions, Andrew Hines, Naomi Harte

Conference papers

Simulated performance intensity functions were used to quantitatively discriminate speech intelligibility through phoneme discrimination assessment. Listener test results for subjects with a wide range of sensorineural hearing losses were simulated using an auditory nerve model and compared to real listeners' unaided and aided performance. Simulations of NAL-RP and DSL 4.0 fitting algorithms were compared. Auditory nerve discharge patterns from the model were presented as neurograms. An automated ranking process was used to quantify neurogram degradation using a new measure, the Neurogram Similarity Index Measure (NSIM). The measure has previously been shown to correlate well in predictions of phoneme discrimination for …

An Online Framework For Supporting The Evaluation Of Personalised Information Retrieval Systems, Catherine Mulwa, Luca Longo, Seamus Lawless, Mary Sharpe, Vincent Wade

Conference papers

Scope - Personalised Information Retrieval (PIR) has been gaining attention because it investigates intelligent ways for enhancing content delivery. Web users can have personalised services and more accurate information. Problem - Several PIR systems have been proposed in the literature; however, they have not been properly tested or evaluated. Proposal – The authors propose a generally applicable web-based interface, which provides PIR developers and evaluators with: i) implicit recommendations on how to evaluate a specific PIR system; ii) a repository containing studies on user-centred and layered evaluation studies; iii) recommendations on how to best combine different evaluation methods, metrics and …

An Event-Based Approach To Describing And Understanding Museum Narratives, Paul Mulholland, Annika Wolff, Trevor Collins, Zdenek Zdrahal

Publications

Current museum metadata tends to be focused around the properties of the heritage object such as the artist, style and date of creation. This form of metadata can index a museum’s collection but cannot express the relations between heritage objects and related concepts found in contemporary museum exhibitions. A modern museum exhibition, rather than providing a taxonomic classification of heritage objects, uses them in the construction of curatorial narratives to be interpreted by an audience. In this paper we outline how curatorial narratives can be represented semantically using our Curate Ontology. The Curate Ontology, informed by a detailed analysis of …

Community-Based Internet Usage Policy Development, Mashael Alhawsah

Students Learning with Communities

The Internet is a tool for learning and obtaining a vast amount of information, but it is a tool which also has associated problems. The number of risks associated with the internet has been increasing both in number and in danger. As a result, protection measures must be developed to minimize the risks. One of the most important groups of such measures are Internet Usage Policies. An Internet Usage Policy addresses the problem by providing a set of guideline to be followed which minimize the risks. This dissertation investigates the development of Internet Usage Policy with the assistance of the …

Developing Design Materials For Yes Campaign For The Referendum For Children's Rights In The Constitution. (Part 1), Hana Hudakova

Students Learning with Communities

The need for a constitutional referendum to address the issue of children’s rights and child protection has been the subject of ongoing debate and discussion within the child care sector for a number of years. As far back as 1989 the ISPCC in its Centenary Charter identified the possible need for a constitutional referendum to ensure children were extended the same rights as adults. My task was to create campaign guidelines for the constitutional referendum – Yes for kids. The logo was based and made as a potatoe stamp. It consists of two parts - kids face and tick symbol …

Report On Work Placement Experience With The Organisation Of Quality And Safety Of Healthcare In Ireland, Aidan Hanway

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Developing Design Materials For Yes Campaign For The Referendum For Children's Rights In The Constitution. (Part 2), Hana Hudakova

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Universal Design Project, Anita Foley

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Road Safety Behaviour Of Rented Dublin Bike Users With That Of Owner Cyclists, Eileen Deegan

Students Learning with Communities

Cycling is a unique way of travelling and exercising. The Irish Heart Foundation recommends thirty minutes of exercise most days in the week to maintain a healthy heart (IHF, 2008). The introduction of the Dublin-bike scheme by Dublin city Council in connection with JCDecaux on the 13th of September 2009 has encouraged and allowed more people to cycle around the city of Dublin. Since their introduction, Dublin-bikes have grown rapidly in popularity. By the 31st of December 2009 24,016 people had subscribed to the scheme (Dublin City Council, 2009). On the 16th of August 2010, The Irish Times published that …

The Use Of Knowledge Management Techniques To Aid Learning Retention In On-Line Learning Environments, Frank O'Reilly

Students Learning with Communities

The focus of this research is e-Learning and Knowledge Management and the synergies between them. While they are both very distinct and different domains, they share the twin goals of delivering personal advancement and improving performance through the acquisition of new skills. They both set about to achieve these goals by means of knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer. However, both disciplines suffer from poor reputations due to low success rates – sometimes perceived, but often real. In particular, e-Learning has failed to live up to the promise it was said to show when it emerged as the successor to Computer-Based …

Using Novels In The Science Classroom, Hannah Llewellyn Haarhues

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Reading is a key factor in the success of students through their school years as well as their lives. With Americans reading less and falling behind in subjects as they progress through the school system, reading is the subject area that benefits all aspects of their schooling. Studies done from the 1990s on have shown successful reading programs improve standardized test scores of school age students. Trade books in place of textbooks had been explored, but only in middle school or younger. This study uses a survey to explore high school biology students' opinions on reading and science before and …

Robustness Analysis Of Slow Learning In Iterative Learning Control Systems, John R. Singler, Douglas A. Bristow

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper examines robust stability and robust transient growth in Iterative Learning Control (ILC). It is well known that small perturbations in system dynamics can result in very large transient growth of some ILC systems. Even larger perturbations can result in instability. One ad hoc technique commonly employed to improve robustness is to slow the learning rate by reducing the learning filter gain or lowpass filtering the error signal. Here, pseudospectra analysis is used to analyze the robustness of ILC algorithms with slow learning. It is found that robustness bounds can be increased and transient growth decreased with decreasing learning …

Secondary Physical Educators' Content Negotiations, Matthew Daniel Ferry

Wayne State University Dissertations

In light of growing concern over the relation between physical inactivity and a variety of biomedical and psychosocial conditions and the disjuncture between larger physical activity culture and secondary school physical education curriculum, the purpose of this study was to examine how middle school physical education teachers negotiated content and curricular decisions. A variety of theories guided this study, including Bourdieu's theories of habitus and field (1977), teacher socialization theory (Lawson, 1983; 1988), teacher ideology (Apple, 2004), teacher emotion (Hargreaves, 1998; McCaughtry, 2004), curriculum as a political text (Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery, & Taubman, 2004), and range of critical and post-structural …

Developing A Multidisciplinary Perioperative Safety Course, William Bond Md, Ms, Hope L. Johnson Msn, Rn, Cnor, Michael Pasquale Md, Facs, Fccm, Melissa B. Walsh Bs, Deborah Arnold Msn, Rn, Cmsrn, Matthew W. Leclair, Kelly L. Lago Ms, Jeanne P. Luke Msn, Rn, Cnor

Department of Emergency Medicine

No abstract provided.

Advanced Information Processing Technologies And Police Discretion, Kevin Wayne Howard

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This research seeks to evaluate the influence of advanced information processing technologies on police discretion. I have developed three propositions. First, advanced information processing technologies used in municipal law enforcement enable policing managers to easily collect and analyze large amounts of information. Second, the information acquired from these same technologies is used to create and/or modify bureaucratic rules regarding police work. Third, this combination of technological and bureaucratic processes has led to a reduction of patrol officers' discretion. Advanced information processing technologies include crime mapping, video surveillance, mobile data terminals (in-car computers), global positioning systems, and computer statistics (Compstat), a …

The Role Of Work Environment On Employee Job Engagement, Micayla Michelle Evers

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Employee job engagement is an increasingly popular and important construct in organizations in the United States. Job engagement is widely considered to have a strong influence on employee job performance, turnover rates, burnout, etc. Many variables contribute to this important construct, and work environment encompasses one of these variables. This study addresses the impact of physical work environment and social work environment in predicting employee job engagement. The current study found that both physical work environment and social work environment were significant predictors of employee job engagement and that physical work environment had a slightly larger impact. Exploratory analyses were …