Challenged Content Delivery Network

Mobile devices are getting increasingly popular all over the world. Mobile users in developing countries however rarely have Internet access which puts them at economic and social disadvantages compared to their counterparts in developed countries. We propose mBridge: A distributed system to disseminate multimedia content to mobile users with intermittent Internet access and opportunistic ad hoc connectivity. By disseminating various multimedia content such as news reports notification messages targeted advertisements movie trailers and TV shows mBridge aims to eliminate the digital divide. We formulate an optimization problem to compute personalized distribution plans for individual mobile users to maximize the overall user experience under various resource constraints. Our formulation jointly considers the characteristics of multimedia content mobile users and intermittent networks. We present an efficient distribution planning algorithm to solve our problem and we develop several online heuristics to adapt to the system and network dynamics. We implement a prototype system and demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms the existing algorithms by up to 206% 472% and 188% in terms of user experience disk efficiency and energy efficiency respectively. In addition we conduct trace-driven simulations to rigorously evaluate the proposed system in different environments and for large-scale deployments. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm substantially outperforms the closest ones in the literature in all performance measures. We believe that mBridge can allow multimedia content providers to reach out to more mobile users and mobile users to access multimedia content without always-on Internet access.

Integration of mobile devices in the multimedia delivery systems provides the users (learners or business people) with access to multimedia content outside the classroom (workplace). It allows them to easily store, record and deliver multimedia content in real-time. Process of delivering multimedia content to the users requires more computational resources than mobile device can provide. In order to provide users with multimedia content that is suitable for their mobile devices and according to their needs we introduce the mobile cloud (mCloud) computing environment as paradigm that is ideal to overcome these problems. The proposed interactive mCloud system should provide high scale collaboration and interaction between the users. The system is designed for delivery of multimedia learning content to the users according to the user’s cognitive style. The content is adapted according to the context-aware network conditions. In this paper, we provide some experimental results based on experience of 90 users (students) that participated in the m-learning cooperative process. After completing the course of Database Systems, the users estimated the Quality of Experience (QoE) by using a Learning Scenario Questionnaire.

This chapter presents an ambient intelligence framework whose goal is to facilitate the information needs of mobility impaired users on the move. This framework couples users with geographically distributed services and the corresponding multimedia content, enabling access to context-sensitive information based on user geographic location and the use case under consideration. It provides a multi-modal facility that is realized through a set of mobile devices and user interfaces that address the needs of ten different types of user impairments. The overall ambient intelligence framework enables users who are equipped with mobile devices to access multimedia content in order to undertake activities relevant to one or more of the following domains: transportation, tourism and leisure, personal support services, work, business, education, social relations and community building. User experience is being explored against those activities through a specific usage scenario.

Mobile devices have made the world a small place. They are also being used widely, to access the Web. However, because most available web pages are designed for desktop PC in mind, it is inconvenient to browse these large web pages on a mobile device with a small screen. With the enormous increase in mobile users since last decade, to such an extent that it even exceeds the number of desktop users in many developing countries, it becomes crucial to design systems for Web Manipulation, there by providing easier and greater accessibility and device independence. In this paper, we propose a new browsing technique to facilitate efficient web access and provide a better user experience on a device with rather small screen as compared to the usual desktop. It also proposes a novel technique to handle multimedia content, especially the images and video on a web page. In order to solve the problem of incomplete tags in HTML, an equivalent XML is generated for the desired webpage. For efficient browsing, the web page is represented as a multi level hierarchy, with the index of major sections on the first level and the sections indexed again in to sub-sections on the second level and so on, until we reach sub-sections that can be represented as sub-pages that fit in the small screen. We also propose an efficient algorithm for navigating through the sub-pages, thereby providing better user experience. The proposed technique provides better and efficient web browsing on mobile small displays up to user satisfaction.

Personalization of multimedia learning content means to classify the multimedia content to meet a specific user’s individual interest, preference, background and situational context – captured by a user profile. Appropriate choice of multimedia learning content has become as one of the most important challenges in order to provide user with personalized distance learning material. The main contribution of this paper is the creation of new model for adaptive multimedia learning that dynamically changes the content depending of the mapping relations between the QoS and QoE metrics. The proposed model delivers personalized multimedia content tailored to user cognitive style and adapting the content according the context – aware network conditions. Main focus is given to tracking the context-aware user behavior in order to generate an appropriate and fine-grained user profile with personalized learning content. The simulation of different models of individual user profiles were developed using the OPNET network simulation software. The presented simulation results confirmed the correctness of the developed model. Keywords-personalized multimedia content; adaptive distance learning system; context-aware; OPNET; user profile.

Energy conservation in battery powered mobile devices that perform wireless multimedia streaming has been a significant research problem since last decade. This is because these mobile devices consume a lot of power while receiving, decoding and ultimately, presenting the multimedia content. What makes things worse is the fact that battery technologies have not evolved enough to keep up with the rapid advancement of mobile devices. This survey examines solutions that have been proposed during the last few years, to improve the energy efficiency of wireless multimedia streaming in mobile hand-held devices. We categorize the research work according to different layers of the Internet protocol stack they utilize. Then, we again regroup these studies based on different traffic scheduling and multimedia content adaptation mechanisms. The traffic scheduling category contains those solutions that optimize the wireless receiving energy without changing the actual multimedia content. The second category on the other hand, specifically modifies the content, in order to reduce the energy consumed by the wireless receiver and to decode and view the content. We compare them and provide evidence of the fact that some of these tactics already exist in modern smaprtphones and provide energy savings with real measurements. In addition, we discuss some relevant literature on the complementary problem of energy-aware multimedia delivery from mobile devices and contrast with our target approaches for multimedia transmission to mobile devices.

This paper proposes a semantic image adaptation scheme for heterogeneous mobile display devices. This scheme aims to provide mobile users with the most desired image content by integrating the content semantic importance with user preferences under limited mobile display constraints. The main contributions of the proposed scheme are: 1) seamless integration of mobile user supplied query information with low level image features to identify semantically important image contents; 2) integration of semantic importance and user feedback to dynamically update mobile user preferences; and 3) perceptually optimized adaptation for image display on mobile devices. In order to bridge the semantic gap for adaptation, we design a Bayesian fusion approach to properly integrate low level features with high level semantics. To accommodate the variation of user preferences, the system involves mobile users in the adaptation process with only a few simple feedbacks so as to present to the users most interesting content on mobile devices. Eventually, perceptually optimized adaptation is performed to present the best image content for mobile users according to mobile display capacities. Extensive experiments have been carried out based on several common events defined in Kodak's consumer image database. These experiments show that by utilizing the proposed semantic adaptation scheme with integration of the semantics and mobile user preferences, perceptually relevant adaptation can be effectively carried out to tailor the image towards user intentions under the mobile environment constraints.

Internet access using mobile handheld devices has surpassed that of fixed Internet, but most web pages are designed for desktop browsers. Mobile devices have resource limitations. Consequently, web pages designed for desktop browsing cannot be well displayed on mobile devices. Thus, dynamically transforming web contents designed for desktops into contents which can be displayed in a mobile device is an important task. Various approaches of content adaptation have been proposed to achieve this goal, but no single content adaptation strategy has been found to be effective. On the other hand, e-learning contents have grown manifold over years. In this paper, we provide a framework for an e-learning content adaptation system that can be used with desktops and mobile devices seamlessly. We combine multiple content adaptation strategies to make e-learning contents appropriate for mobile devices. Among the various content adaptation strategies, the segmentation algorithm plays the most important role. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed scheme can be successfully utilized for content adaptation in mobile and handheld devices.

We discuss an interconnectivity framework for data and content delivery to mobile devices that allows data of higher priority to reach the mobile unit in the shortest time possible. Two possible scenarios are presented; one that connects the servers in an N-cube configuration network, and another that shows the same N servers connected in a grid type network. The goal is to minimize the rate of data jumps from server to server until it reaches the mobile device. As the mobile user travels, the mobile device registers itself with the next server and the session is migrated from the old server to the new one without interruptions, in an analogous way, cell phones move from one cell to another. Starting with the idea that all data is not equal (in importance/priority), this article suggest a framework topology for intelligent mobile computing that guarantees data will reach the mobile device in a minimum amount of time, assuring at the same time the privacy of transmission. The integration of this type of technology into the 3r d Generation (3G), and 4t h Generation (4G) mobile computing is also discussed. Pervasive computing is rapidly emerging as the next generation of computing with the underlying premise of simplicity (of use), minimal technical expertise, reliability, and intuitive interactions. As technology continues to advance and mobile devices become more and more omnipresent, the aim towards achieving easier computing, more availability and prevalence is becoming a given. Through the clever use of advanced technologies, the new generation of intelligent mobile computing has the opportunity to serve user needs via prevalent computing devices that are ever more transportable and connected to an increasingly ubiquitous network structure. Mobile communication is changing as the trends of media convergence including the Internet and its related electronic communication technologies and satellite communications collide into one. A change is being ushered by the 3G (3r d Generation) mobile technology with the usability and usefulness of information delivered to mobile devices taking on added features. For example, multimedia messaging, as opposed to voice transmissions, being delivered to cell phones has rendered such mobile devices an integral part of people’s lives and a core part of how they conduct their daily business rather than an add on tool (Buckingham, 2001). The 3G mobile phone system aims at unifying the disparate standards of current second generation wireless systems. The idea is to eliminate the different types of global networks being adopted with a single standard network. This will allow for the delivery of multimedia content and propagation through the network without the need for conversion from one standard to another. 3G systems need smaller cells thus the need for more base stations (mostly due to their operating frequency, power requirements, and modulation) and in many cases will not be feasible to install them in areas where population is not so dense (i.e., rural areas) (Garber, 2002). Because of these requirements and conditions, a better way to deliver the communication must be established. However, global access to such mobile devices will create data delivery challenges and servers can become clogged with unwanted communication, like that of wired Internet access. The need for moving relevant data to mobile devices in the shortest time possible becomes of utmost importance.

User-provided multimedia content distribution architecture in mobile and ubiquitous communication networks

Introduction: The quality of care delivered by healthcare practitioners (HCPs) is crucial in promoting optimal health and quality of life (QOL) for a population. To achieve this, understanding the factors that affect the quality of life of healthcare practitioners is essential for governments to develop sustainable healthcare systems. Developed countries have a major role to play in this aspect, as the misallocation of healthcare providers to the wrong geographic regions can significantly impact their performance. Aim: This study aims to evaluate the factors associated with healthcare practitioners’ (HCP) quality of life (QOL) and provide workforce planning with knowledge of the level of QOL among HCPs and its factors in Saudi Arabia in 2021.Methods: This is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in both rural and urban areas of Saudi Arabia. The study population includes all healthcare practitioners practicing in Saudi Arabia. A probability-stratified random sampling technique was used to recruit healthcare practitioners into the study, with a requirement of at least 380 practitioners to achieve 95% confidence and a 5% margin of error. To assess the quality of life of healthcare practitioners in Saudi Arabia, the study used a national online self-administered questionnaire that was designed by the research team. The data collection process took place from June 2021 to October 2021, and responses were obtained randomly. For analysis, the study used descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages, mean or median, and standard deviation or interquartile range. The statistical significance was set at p<0.05, and independent sample T-tests and Chi-square tests were calculated to determine any significant differences between groups.Results: A total of 439 participants completed the questionnaire and were included in the final analysis. The participants had a mean age of 38.8 years (SD = 10.173), with 232 (52.8%) male and 207 (47.2%) female. Regarding marital status, 28% were single, 68.6% were married, and 3.4% were divorced or widowed. The prevalence of chronic diseases in the cohort was 9.1%, with hypertension being the most commonly reported. Of the participants, 362 (82.5%) were living in a society considered urban, while 77 (17.5%) were living in rural areas. Urban healthcare practitioners expressed higher levels of satisfaction with safety and security, internet availability and speed, and city infrastructure compared to their rural counterparts. However, rural practitioners reported greater satisfaction with the cost of living, and transportation quality was a point of concern for both groups.Conclusion: The study shows that people living in urban and rural areas are all satisfied with their living conditions based on many factors mentioned in the results section. This indicates that there is no significant difference. The most important factor that affects satisfaction with living is health status. The rate of satisfaction is very high for all factors, including security and safety, environmental health, city infrastructure, cost of living, internet availability, and sports activity-all of which are related to the city itself. For factors related to the individual, such as emotional support from family and friends, personal relationships, overall health, and body appearance, the rate of satisfaction is also high.

Nurses Need Training and Policies to Address Barriers to Use of Mobile Devices and Apps for Direct Patient Care in Hospital Settings

The relevance of the research topic is that in order to effectively ensure the professional training of highly qualified personnel in higher education institutions, priority is given to professionally competent teachers, researchers and innovators who are able to implement modern methodological approaches to scientific knowledge and student-centred learning during a lifetime with prolonged employment. The purpose of this article is to study the innovative educational technologies and competencies in higher education. The leading research methods are survey, questionnaire, interviewing, testing and the method of statistical analysis. The authors formed experimental and control groups of future teachers in order to measure the level of readiness of philology students to use technological innovations in future professional and pedagogical activities. It was found that positive changes in the identification of students’ interest in these activities occurred only in those students who observed innovative approaches of teachers to teaching foreign languages. Also, it was determined that the increased interest of students—future teachers of philological specializations of the control and experimental groups in multimedia and electronic learning tools is due to the global digitalization of the educational process, as well as the school reformation processes, which provide for the active introduction and use of multimedia teaching tools. The principal research question for this research is as follows: Is it necessary for philolosophy students to use technological innovations in future professional and pedagogical activities? It was concluded that the developed and implemented system of teaching foreign languages to students of philological specializations using technological innovations is effective.

With smartphones and other web-enabled mobile devices growing quickly in popularity, higher education institutions have the opportunity -- and challenge -- to leverage this young medium to provide dynamic content regarding services, events, and support documentation, among others. In late 2009, Lehigh University released an iPhone app dubbed LehighU Live. The mobile device market has changed significantly since then with the addition of the widely-popular Android operating system and others like Blackberry and Windows Phone 7. In spring 2011, the student technology support team revamped their web presence with the goal of also offering support services via students' mobile devices. Our first responsibility was to provide a mobile application that can be used across platforms; however, we also wanted the user experience to feel the same as any other app on a given platform. For example, our app should feel like an Android app if the student is using an Android phone. Our second responsibility was to ensure that we could deliver dynamic content to students quickly regarding services, updates, support tips, and real-time alerts. These two major responsibilities presented significant challenges, not the least of which is that we do not have the resources to develop and/or maintain a separate app for each platform while also managing and pushing out the types of content we needed to get to students quickly. Therefore, we began looking at cross-platform mobile development frameworks such as the Mobile Web Framework (MWF) released by UCLA and other device-agnostic approaches. The challenge quickly became to build a solid, web-based mobile application that could be delivered via an app for individual platforms while at the same time accessible and uasble via mobile web browser for other web-enabled mobile devices.

The article shows the importance of the use of new information technologies in the process of professional training of future teachers of physical education at the current stage of the development of society in the conditions of distance learning. The main directions and tasks regarding the use of info-communication and multimedia learning tools in the professional training of students from the specialty 014 Secondary education are defined. (physical culture). The educational component "sports-pedagogical informatics" was introduced into the educational process, the curriculum and diagnostic technology for assessing success according to the modular rating system for this course were developed. It has been established that the implementation of such innovative tasks in full will make it possible to significantly optimize the professional training of future specialists in the conditions of distance learning and to quickly integrate into the European educational space. In addition, the main stages of the introduction of computer and multimedia tools into the educational process of future teachers of physical culture are determined. The justified need to introduce the educational component "Sports and pedagogical informatics" into the educational process of students from the specialty 014 Secondary education (physical culture). Carrying out such innovative tasks in full will make it possible to significantly optimize the professional training of students in the specialty 014 Secondary education (physical education) in the conditions of distance learning.