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Calibration of an articulated CMM using stochastic approximations

- Sultan, Ibrahim, Puthiyaveettil, Prajeesh

  • Authors: Sultan, Ibrahim , Puthiyaveettil, Prajeesh
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Vol. 63, no. 1-4 (2012), p. 201-207
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  • Description: A coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is meant to digitise the spatial locations of points and feed the resulting measurements to a CAD system for storing and processing. For reliable utilisation of a CMM, a calibration procedure is often undertaken to eliminate the inaccuracies which result from manufacturing, assembly and installation errors. In this paper, an Immersion digitizer coordinate measuring machine has been calibrated using an accurately manufactured master cuboid fixture. This CMM has been designed as an articulated manipulator to enhance its dexterity and versatility. As such, the calibration problem is tackled with the aid of a kinematic model similar to those employed for the analysis of serial robots. In addition, a stochastic-based optimisation technique is used to identify the parameters of the kinematic model in order for the accurate performance to be achieved. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method, whereby the measuring accuracy has been improved considerably. © 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited.
  • Description: 2003010394

Coding OSICS sports injury diagnoses in epidemiological studies : Does the background of the coder matter?

- Finch, Caroline, Orchard, John, Twomey, Dara, Saleem, Muhammad Saad, Ekegren, Christina, Lloyd, David, Elliott, Bruce

  • Authors: Finch, Caroline , Orchard, John , Twomey, Dara , Saleem, Muhammad Saad , Ekegren, Christina , Lloyd, David , Elliott, Bruce
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol.48, p.552-556.
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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  • Description: Objective: To compare Orchard Sports Injury Classification System (OSICS-10) sports medicine diagnoses assigned by a clinical and non-clinical coder. Design: Assessment of intercoder agreement. Setting: Community Australian football. Participants: 1082 standardised injury surveillance records. Main outcome measurements: Direct comparison of the four-character hierarchical OSICS-10 codes assigned by two independent coders (a sports physician and an epidemiologist). Adjudication by a third coder (biomechanist). Results: The coders agreed on the first character 95% of the time and on the first two characters 86% of the time. They assigned the same four-digit OSICS-10 code for only 46% of the 1082 injuries. The majority of disagreements occurred for the third character; 85% were because one coder assigned a non-specific 'X' code. The sports physician code was deemed correct in 53% of cases and the epidemiologist in 44%. Reasons for disagreement included the physician not using all of the collected information and the epidemiologist lacking specific anatomical knowledge. Conclusions: Sports injury research requires accurate identification and classification of specific injuries and this study found an overall high level of agreement in coding according to OSICS-10. The fact that the majority of the disagreements occurred for the third OSICS character highlights the fact that increasing complexity and diagnostic specificity in injury coding can result in a loss of reliability and demands a high level of anatomical knowledge. Injury report form details need to reflect this level of complexity and data management teams need to include a broad range of expertise. Copyright Article author (or their employer) 2012.

Compliance with return-to-play regulations following concussion in Australian schoolboy and community rugby union players

- Hollis, Stephanie, Stevenson, Mark, McIntosh, Andrew, Shores, E Arthur, Finch, Caroline

  • Authors: Hollis, Stephanie , Stevenson, Mark , McIntosh, Andrew , Shores, E Arthur , Finch, Caroline
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 10 (2012), p. 735-740
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  • Description: Background: There is a risk of concussion when playing rugby union. Appropriate management of concussion includes compliance with the return-to-play regulations of the sports body for reducing the likelihood of premature return-to-play by injured players. Purpose: To describe the proportion of rugby union players who comply with the sports body's regulations on returning to play postconcussion. Study design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: 1958 community rugby union players (aged 15–48 years) in Sydney (Australia) were recruited from schoolboy, grade and suburban competitions and followed over ≥1 playing seasons. Club doctors/physiotherapists/coaches or trained injury recorders who attended the game reported players who sustained a concussion. Concussed players were followed up over a 3-month period and the dates when they returned to play (including either a game or training session) were recorded, as well as any return-to-play advice they received. Results: 187 players sustained ≥1 concussion throughout the follow-up. The median number of days before players returned to play (competition game play or training) following concussion was 3 (range 1–84). Most players (78%) did not receive return-to-play advice postconcussion, and of those who received correct advice, all failed to comply with the 3-week stand-down regulation. Conclusions: The paucity of return-to-play advice received by community rugby union players postconcussion and the high level of non-compliance with return-to-play regulations highlight the need for better dissemination and implementation of the return-to-play regulations and improved understanding of the underlying causes of why players do not adhere to return-to-play practices.

Controls on the rate of ureolysis and the morphology of carbonate precipitated by S. Pasteurii biofilms and limits due to bacterial encapsulation

- Cuthbert, M., Riley, Michael, Handley-Sidhu, Stephanie, Renshaw, Joanna, Tobler, Dominique, Phoenix, Vernon, Mackay, Rae

  • Authors: Cuthbert, M. , Riley, Michael , Handley-Sidhu, Stephanie , Renshaw, Joanna , Tobler, Dominique , Phoenix, Vernon , Mackay, Rae
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Ecological Engineering Vol. 41, no. (2012), p. 32-40
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  • Description: Despite the potential contribution of microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) to a range of environmental technologies, little is known about the controls on the rate of ureolysis and precipitate size and morphology using attached bacterial communities. This paper presents results of experiments using Sporosarcina pasteurii biofilms, of varying density, grown on perspex and granite surfaces then immersed in fluids comprising calcium chloride and urea of varying concentrations. Denser biofilms resulting from higher nutrient conditions led to faster nucleation of calcite and higher rates of ammonium production found to be related to crystal size via a power law. The observed morphology of the precipitates was variable depending on precipitation rates and nucleation of calcite was independent of the substrate mineralogy. In some cases the calcite layer became non-porous, and the bridging of pores within the granite was also observed. We show how ureolysis is limited eventually by the encapsulation of the biofilm by calcite and present a novel model that enables the reaction to be optimised to yield maximum calcite precipitation over a desired timescale. Slower reaction rates may in some circumstances be desirable for maximum reaction efficiency. The results have important implications for the design of engineering solutions involving MICP

Detecting K-complexes for sleep stage identification using nonsmooth optimization

- Moloney, David, Sukhorukova, Nadezda, Vamplew, Peter, Ugon, Julien, Li, Gang, Beliakov, Gleb, Philippe, Carole, Amiel, Hélène, Ugon, Adrien

  • Authors: Moloney, David , Sukhorukova, Nadezda , Vamplew, Peter , Ugon, Julien , Li, Gang , Beliakov, Gleb , Philippe, Carole , Amiel, Hélène , Ugon, Adrien
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: ANZIAM Journal Vol. 52, no. 4 (2012), p. 319-332
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  • Description: The process of sleep stage identification is a labour-intensive task that involves the specialized interpretation of the polysomnographic signals captured from a patient's overnight sleep session. Automating this task has proven to be challenging for data mining algorithms because of noise, complexity and the extreme size of data. In this paper we apply nonsmooth optimization to extract key features that lead to better accuracy. We develop a specific procedure for identifying K-complexes, a special type of brain wave crucial for distinguishing sleep stages. The procedure contains two steps. We first extract "easily classified" K-complexes, and then apply nonsmooth optimization methods to extract features from the remaining data and refine the results from the first step. Numerical experiments show that this procedure is efficient for detecting K-complexes. It is also found that most classification methods perform significantly better on the extracted features. © 2012 Australian Mathematical Society.

Do parents' and children's concerns about sports safety and injury risk relate to how much physical activity children do?

- Telford, Amanda, Finch, Caroline, Barnett, Lisa, Abbott, Gavin, Salmon, Jo

  • Authors: Telford, Amanda , Finch, Caroline , Barnett, Lisa , Abbott, Gavin , Salmon, Jo
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 15 (2012), p. 1084-1088
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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  • Description: Objective: To see whether concerns about injury risk relate to children's physical activity (PA). Methods: Two cohorts were recruited from 19 Australian schools and assessed in 2001 (T1), 2004 (T2) and 2006 (T3). The younger (n=162) was assessed at 6, 9 and 11years old, and the older (n=259) at 11, 14 and 16 years old. At T1 and T2, parents of the younger cohort reported on fear of child being injured, and whether child would be at risk of injury if they played organised sport; the older cohort self-reported injury fear. Accelerometers assessed PA at each time point. Linear regression models examined cross-sectional associations, and also associations between T1 injury fear and risk and T2 PA, and T2 injury fear and risk and T3 PA. Results: In the younger cohort at T2 (9 years), fear and risk were both negatively associated with moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) (β=−0.17, 95% CI −0.30 to −0.03 and β=−0.26, 95% CI −0.41 to −0.10) and also vigorous PA (VPA). Fear was also associated with moderate PA (MPA). For the older cohort at T1, injury fear was negatively associated with MVPA (β=−0.21, 95% CI −0.35 to −0.07) and also MPA and VPA. Parental perception of risk at T1 (6 years) was negatively associated with children’s MPA at T2 (9 years) (β= −0.17, 95% CI −0.32 to −0.02). Sex did not moderate any association. Conclusions Younger children and their parents need to know which sports have low injury risks. Some children may need increased confidence to participate.
  • Description: Objective: To see whether concerns about injury risk relate to children's physical activity (PA). Methods: Two cohorts were recruited from 19 Australian schools and assessed in 2001 (T1), 2004 (T2) and 2006 (T3). The younger (n=162) was assessed at 6, 9 and 11years old, and the older (n=259) at 11, 14 and 16 years old. At T1 and T2, parents of the younger cohort reported on fear of child being injured, and whether child would be at risk of injury if they played organised sport; the older cohort self-reported injury fear. Accelerometers assessed PA at each time point. Linear regression models examined cross-sectional associations, and also associations between T1 injury fear and risk and T2 PA, and T2 injury fear and risk and T3 PA. Results: In the younger cohort at T2 (9 years), fear and risk were both negatively associated with moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) (

Gold mineralisation and ore controls at the Clogau mine, Dolgellau, north Wales, United Kingdom

- Dominy, Simon, Platten, Ian

  • Authors: Dominy, Simon , Platten, Ian
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Transactions of the Institutions of Mining and Metallurgy, Section B : Applied Earth Science Vol. 121, no. 1 (2012), p. 12-28
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  • Description: At a recorded production of 2·5 t Au and mill recovered grade of 17 g/t Au, Clogau is the largest and richest mine in the Dolgellau gold-belt and is the most prolific gold producer in the United Kingdom. The main period of production commenced in 1861 and ended in 1911, with intermittent production between 1983 and 2007. The principal gold-quartz bearing Main reef can be traced for about 3 km along strike, trending approximately NE-SW and dipping between 60uSE and 90uSE. The reef system pinches and swells, changes strike, and splits into a number of major and minor branches. Reef width is variable, ranging from 6 m to a few centimetres. The reef is internally complex and composed of swarms of narrow sub-parallel quartz veins separated by sheets of country rock. The gold-bearing vein segments within the composite reef package are discontinuous, though may locally possess bonanza grades running at 1000s g/t Au. The predictability of the gold-rich segments is poor, but has been shown to be related to presence of the Clogau Formation (black-shale), interactions of the reef fault with greenstone sills, and/or reef splitting to form discrete ore shoots. © 2012 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and The AusIMM.
  • Description: 2003010576

Grade control geological mapping in underground gold vein operations

- Dominy, Simon, Platten, Ian

  • Authors: Dominy, Simon , Platten, Ian
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Transactions of the Institutions of Mining and Metallurgy, Section B : Applied Earth Science Vol. 121, no. 2 (2012), p. 96-103
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  • Description: Grade control is a process of maximising value and reducing risk. It requires the delivery of tonnes at an optimum grade to the mill, via the accurate definition of ore and waste. It essentially comprises data collection, integration and interpretation, local resource estimation, stope design, supervision of mining and stockpile management. The foundation of all grade control programmes should be that of geological understanding led by clear and accurate mapping and representative sampling to drive appropriate estimation strategies and mining. Gold veins show features relating to erratic grade distribution (nugget effect), and variable geometry and internal architecture. These features include variations in dip, strike and width, late-stage faulting/shearing effects and vein continuity and type. Variations generally require close geological understanding to ensure optimum grade, minimal dilution and maximum mining recovery. A welldesigned grade control programme will prove to management and stakeholders that by applying geological knowledge, the mining process can be both efficient and cost effective. © 2012 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and The AusIMM.
  • Description: 2003010686

Identifying context-specific competencies required by community Australian Football sports trainers

- Donaldson, Alex, Finch, Caroline

  • Authors: Donaldson, Alex , Finch, Caroline
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 10 (August 2012 2012), p. 759-765
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565907
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  • Description: Background: First-aid is a recommended injury prevention and risk management strategy in community sport; however, little is known about the sport-specific competencies required by first-aid providers. Objective: To achieve expert consensus on the competencies required by community Australian Football (community-AF) sports trainers. Study design: A three-round online Delphi process. Setting: Community-AF. Participants: 16 Australian sports first-aid and community-AF experts. Outcome measures: Rating of competencies as either ‘essential’, ‘expected’, ‘ideal’ or ‘not required’. Results: After Round 3, 47 of the 77 (61%) competencies were endorsed as ‘essential’ or ‘expected’ for a sports trainer to effectively perform the activities required to the standards expected at a community-AF club by ≥75% of experts. These competencies covered: the role of the sports trainer; the responsibilities of the sports trainer; emergency management; injury and illness assessment and immediate management; taping; and injury prevention and risk management. Four competencies (5%) were endorsed as ‘ideal’ or ‘not required’ by ≥85% of experts and were excluded from further consideration. The 26 competencies where consensus was not reached were retained as second-tier, optional competencies. Conclusions: Sports trainers are important members of on-field first-aid teams, providing support to both injured players and other sports medicine professionals. The competencies identified in this study provide the basis of a proposed two-tiered community-AF–specific sports trainer education structure that can be implemented by the peak sports body. This includes six mandatory modules, relating to the ‘required’ competencies, and a further six optional modules covering competencies on which consensus was not reached.

Investigations into the thiamine and riboflavin content of malt and the effects of malting and roasting on their final content

- Hucker, Barry, Wakeling, Lara, Vriesekoop, Frank

  • Authors: Hucker, Barry , Wakeling, Lara , Vriesekoop, Frank
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Journal of Cereal Science Vol.56, no.2 (2012), p.300-306
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  • Description: A simple and effective method for the analysis of thiamine (B1) and riboflavin (B2) vitamers, in unmalted and malted grains, by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been developed. This method makes use of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) as an extraction medium to effectively clean up the sample and analyze the vitamer content with high accuracy (R2 > 0.9992; %RSD < 5%). This method was employed in the routine analysis of a wide range of malted and unmalted grains, and it was found that lighter colored malts contain higher concentrations (2–5 times higher) of thiamine and riboflavin vitamers compared to darker colored malts. The malting process has no effect on the overall riboflavin content; however, both steeping and kilning processes cause increases in thiamine vitamer content. Roasting profiles show that thiamine and riboflavin vitamer concentrations are significantly effected when the temperature reaches 120 °C, which explains why roasted products have lower vitamer content than paler malts.
  • Description: A simple and effective method for the analysis of thiamine (B

It's a man's world : The academic staff gender disparity in engineering in 21st Century Australia

- Dobson, Ian

  • Authors: Dobson, Ian
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Global Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 14, no. 3 (2012), p. 213-218
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  • Description: This article examines the academic staff gender disparity in engineering in the 21st Century through an analysis of Australian university staff statistics. The proportion of female academics in engineering is rising, but at a slow rate. In addition, women are more likely to be in junior classifications and less likely to be tenured than their male colleagues. Female engineering academics also tend to be younger than their male counterparts. Although the proportion of the engineering academic workforce made up by women is likely to increase beyond the current rate of about 16%, it will be a long time before engineering ceases to be a male-dominated discipline. © WIETE 2012.

K-complex detection using a hybrid-synergic machine learning method

- Vu, Huy Quan, Li, Gang, Sukhorukova, Nadezda, Beliakov, Gleb, Liu, Shaowu, Philippe, Carole, Amiel, Hélène, Ugon, Adrien

  • Authors: Vu, Huy Quan , Li, Gang , Sukhorukova, Nadezda , Beliakov, Gleb , Liu, Shaowu , Philippe, Carole , Amiel, Hélène , Ugon, Adrien
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Part C : Applications and Reviews Vol. 42, no. 6 (2012), p. 1478-1490
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  • Description: Sleep stage identification is the first step in modern sleep disorder diagnostics process. K-complex is an indicator for the sleep stage 2. However, due to the ambiguity of the translation of the medical standards into a computer-based procedure, reliability of automated K-complex detection from the EEG wave is still far from expectation. More specifically, there are some significant barriers to the research of automatic K-complex detection. First, there is no adequate description of K-complex that makes it difficult to develop automatic detection algorithm. Second, human experts only provided the label for whether a whole EEG segment contains K-complex or not, rather than individual labels for each subsegment. These barriers render most pattern recognition algorithms inapplicable in detecting K-complex. In this paper, we attempt to address these two challenges, by designing a new feature extraction method that can transform visual features of the EEG wave with any length into mathematical representation and proposing a hybrid-synergic machine learning method to build a K-complex classifier. The tenfold cross-validation results indicate that both the accuracy and the precision of this proposed model are at least as good as a human expert in K-complex detection. © 1998-2012 IEEE.
  • Description: 2003010569

Planning for implementation and translation : seek first to understand the end-users’ perspectives

- Donaldson, Alex, Finch, Caroline

  • Authors: Donaldson, Alex , Finch, Caroline
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 5 (April 2012), p. 306-307
  • Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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  • Description: Translating research evidence into sustained improvements in population health outcomes is a current priority across many health research fields including sports medicine,1 injury prevention2 and physical activity promotion.3 Both the ‘traditional’ approach of publishing sports injury research findings in peer-reviewed journals and hoping for the best, and the more sophisticated approach of developing and disseminating consensus statements and related sport safety guidelines have been relatively unsuccessful to date.

Polygon scaled boundary finite elements for crack propagation modelling

- Ooi, Ean Tat, Song, Chongmin, Tin-Loi, Francis, Yang, Zhenjun

  • Authors: Ooi, Ean Tat , Song, Chongmin , Tin-Loi, Francis , Yang, Zhenjun
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering Vol. 91, no. 3 (2012), p. 319-342
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  • Description: An automatic crack propagation modelling technique using polygon elements is presented. A simple algorithm to generate a polygon mesh from a Delaunay triangulated mesh is implemented. The polygon element formulation is constructed from the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM), treating each polygon as a SBFEM subdomain and is very efficient in modelling singular stress fields in the vicinity of cracks. Stress intensity factors are computed directly from their definitions without any nodal enrichment functions. An automatic remeshing algorithm capable of handling any n-sided polygon is developed to accommodate crack propagation. The algorithm is simple yet flexible because remeshing involves minimal changes to the global mesh and is limited to only polygons on the crack paths. The efficiency of the polygon SBFEM in computing accurate stress intensity factors is first demonstrated for a problem with a stationary crack. Four crack propagation benchmarks are then modelled to validate the developed technique and demonstrate its salient features. The predicted crack paths show good agreement with experimental observations and numerical simulations reported in the literature. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Redesigning the assessment of an entrepreneurship course in an information technology degree program : Embedding assessment for learning practices

- Pardede, Eric, Lyons, Judith

  • Authors: Pardede, Eric , Lyons, Judith
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Education Vol. 55, no. 4 (2012), p. 566 - 572
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  • Description: Entrepreneurship is a novel course in the curriculum for students in the Information Technology (IT) degree program at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia. In comparison to other IT-related courses, the Entrepreneurship course seeks to develop business management knowledge and skills; its learning design is thus different to that of other courses in the IT program. The concept of constructive alignment for curriculum renewal suggests that there are several components of good course design. In this paper, we use the principles of constructive alignment to analyze and redesign several components of the Entrepreneurship course. The focus is on reviewing and aligning the assessment tasks to ensure an effective evaluation and the achievement of student learning outcomes. Since assessment drives student learning, we describe the innovative assessment tasks that were implemented to enhance student learning, provide the rationale for the design of these tasks as supported by the current literature, and reflect on possible future improvements. The course redesign process and the constructive alignment and innovative assessment can be applied to other courses in the field, and more broadly to curriculum, teaching, and learning in higher education.

Redesigning the assessment of an entrepreneurship course in an information technology degree program : Embedding assessment for learning practices

- Pardede, Eric, Lyons, Judith

  • Authors: Pardede, Eric , Lyons, Judith
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Education Vol. 55, no. 4 (2012), p. 566 - 572
  • Full Text: false
  • Reviewed:
  • Description: Entrepreneurship is a novel course in the curriculum for students in the Information Technology (IT) degree program at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia. In comparison to other IT-related courses, the Entrepreneurship course seeks to develop business management knowledge and skills; its learning design is thus different to that of other courses in the IT program. The concept of constructive alignment for curriculum renewal suggests that there are several components of good course design. In this paper, we use the principles of constructive alignment to analyze and redesign several components of the Entrepreneurship course. The focus is on reviewing and aligning the assessment tasks to ensure an effective evaluation and the achievement of student learning outcomes. Since assessment drives student learning, we describe the innovative assessment tasks that were implemented to enhance student learning, provide the rationale for the design of these tasks as supported by the current literature, and reflect on possible future improvements. The course redesign process and the constructive alignment and innovative assessment can be applied to other courses in the field, and more broadly to curriculum, teaching, and learning in higher education.

Reliability analysis of shuffle-exchange network systems

- Gunawan, Indra

  • Authors: Gunawan, Indra
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: Reliability Engineering and System Safety Vol. 93, no. (2012), p. 271-276
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  • Description: Shuffle-exchange networks (SENs) have been widely considered as practical interconnection systems due to their size of its switching elements (SEs) and uncomplicated configuration. SEN is a network among a large class of topologically equivalent multistage interconnection networks (MINs) that includes omega, indirect binary n-cube, baseline, and generalized cube. In this paper, SEN with additional stages that provide more redundant paths are analyzed. A common network topology with a 2×2 basic building block in a SEN and its variants in terms of extra-stages is investigated. As an illustration, three types of SENs are compared: SEN, SEN with an additional stage (SEN+), and SEN with two additional stages (SEN+2). Finally, three measures of reliability: terminal, broadcast, and network reliability for the three SEN systems are analyzed.

Sliding-window designs for vertex-based shape coding

- Sohel, Ferdous, Karmakar, Gour, Dooley, Laurence, Bennamoun, M.

  • Authors: Sohel, Ferdous , Karmakar, Gour , Dooley, Laurence , Bennamoun, M.
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia Vol. 14, no. 3 (June 2012), p. 683-692
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  • Description: Traditionally the sliding window (SW) has been employed in vertex-based operational rate distortion (ORD) optimal shape coding algorithms to ensure consistent distortion (quality) measurement and improve computational efficiency. It also regulates the memory requirements for an encoder design enabling regular, symmetrical hardware implementations. This paper presents a series of new enhancements to existing techniques for determining the best SW-length within a rate-distortion (RD) framework, and analyses the nexus between SW-length and storage for ORD hardware realizations. In addition, it presents an efficient bit-allocation strategy for managing multiple shapes together with a generalized adaptive SW scheme which integrates localized curvature information (cornerity) on contour points with a bi-directional spatial distance, to afford a superior and more pragmatic SW design compared with existing adaptive SW solutions which are based on only cornerity values. Experimental results consistently corroborate the effectiveness of these new strategies.

Sport as a setting for promoting health

- Donaldson, Alex, Finch, Caroline

Time is on my side : How do engineering academics spend their days - an international study

- Aarrevaara, Timo, Dobson, Ian

  • Authors: Aarrevaara, Timo , Dobson, Ian
  • Date: 2012
  • Type: Text , Journal article
  • Relation: World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education Vol. 10, no. 3 (2012), p. 184-191
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  • Description: This article uses empirical data from the international Changing Academic Profession (CAP) survey to establish similarities and differences in work patterns among the world's academic engineers. Overall working hours and the distribution of work between teaching, research and other activities are examined. Summary results indicate that in periods when classes are in session, engineering academics from South Korea and Hong Kong reported a longer working week than equivalent staff from other countries. Engineering academics from Mexico and South Africa spent the highest proportion of their time on teaching, whereas those from Argentina, China and Italy spent the highest proportion on research. The most likely reason for international differences in the length of the working week is that national systems (such as higher education) have been constructed from the individual histories and cultures in each country. © 2012 WIETE.
  • Description: 2003010832