Closing the gap: human factors in cross-device media synchronization

The continuing growth in the mobile phone arena, particularly in terms of device capabilities and ownership is having a transformational impact on media consumption. It is now possible to consider orchestrated multi-stream experiences delivered across many devices, rather than the playback of content from a single device. However, there are significant challenges in realising such a vision, particularly around the management of synchronicity between associated media streams. This is compounded by the heterogeneous nature of user devices, the networks upon which they operate, and the perceptions of users. This paper describes IMSync, an open inter-stream synchronisation framework that is QoE-aware. IMSync adopts efficient monitoring and control mechanisms, alongside a QoE perception model that has been derived from a series of subjective user experiments. Based on an observation of lag, IMSync is able to use this model of impact to determine an appropriate strategy to catch-up with playback whilst minimising the potential detrimental impacts on a users QoE. The impact model adopts a balanced approach: trading off the potential impact on QoE of initiating a re-synchronisation process compared with retaining the current levels of non-synchronicity, in order to maintain high levels of QoE. A series of experiments demonstrate the potential of the framework as a basis for enabling new, immersive media experiences

Student perceptions of the emotional and academic outcomes of participation in a group process module

Literature suggests that collaborative group work is conducive to productive learning. However a growing sense of uncertainty about the academic value of an undergraduate module that made use of group work led to the desire to gauge more fully students’ perceptions of this way of learning. An interpretive methodology, using a focus group and questionnaires, was employed to address the question. The importance of the maintenance of trusting relationships between the students, and between the student and tutor emerged strongly, along with the positive value of a clear and explicit direction for the group. A model for thinking about how to structure and frame such groups and how to position oneself as a tutor within such groups is proposed in response to the findings. The author concludes that paying attention to the relationship between educators and learners is vitally important within the context of group-based teaching and learning

“I couldn’t move forward if I didn’t look back”: Visual Expression and Transitional Stories of Domestic Violence

Psychological, sociological and feminist models of understanding domestic violence have contributed to the development of interventions that seek to raise awareness, keep women safe, and help them to create new lives for themselves and their families. Research literature has extensively paid attention to the ways in which women both live with and move away from domestic violence, documenting how they employ strategies of survival and resistance. The research methods employed to investigate domestic violence includes a range of quantitative and qualitative methods with particular emphasis placed upon enabling women to tell their stories in as authentic a way as possible. This thesis adds to the literature by considering how women construct what will be referred to as transitional stories of domestic violence, within which they imagine their future selves and develop the means to become what they hope for. The methodology used is original within the study of domestic violence in its synthesis of arts-based, feminist and participatory methods. The adopted epistemology sought to value the use of embodiment and imagination in the construction of knowledge, both of which are considered to be situated. The use of an arts-based method is chosen to enable a different way for women to tell their stories about their response to living with and transitioning away from domestic violence. The evaluation of this methodology shows that it is a valid form of enabling women to have the embodied subjectivity of their experiences and imagination witnessed in a way that complements the written and spoken word, whilst better allowing the physical and metaphorical quality of their stories to come to the foreground. Following a feminist agenda, attention is paid to the influence of gender upon the researcher’s findings, and upon the participants’ and researchers’ reflexive engagement with the research process. The research shows that the home has special significance for women as they transition away from domestic violence and plan for their future. The home becomes a physical manifestation and container for women’s hopes and fears for a harmonious future that often incorporates the desire for the return to the idea of a complete family. Relationships with family, friends and services are shown to be both enablers of women’s agency and resistance. Those same relationships are also shown to be capable of acting as barriers to women’s positive transitional journeys. The findings show that attention needs to be placed upon the appearance of women’s agency within the everyday tasks of creating and maintaining a home and managing relationships as they move away from domestic violence. The findings also point to the need for services to work harder on empowering women, both by adequately listening to the stories told about their pasts and hopes for the future, and by helping them to achieve their plans through challenging the limitations imposed by policies and economics

Baguette:towards end-to-end service orchestration in heterogeneous networks

Network services are the key mechanism for operators to introduce intelligence and generate profit from their infrastructures. The growth of the number of network users and the stricter application network requirements have highlighted a number of challenges in orchestrating services using existing production management and configuration protocols and mechanisms. Recent networking paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), provide a set of novel control and management interfaces that enable unprecedented automation, flexibility and openness capabilities in operator infrastructure management. This paper presents Baguette, a novel and open service orchestration framework for operators. Baguette supports a wide range of network technologies, namely optical and wired Ethernet technologies, and allows service providers to automate the deployment and dynamic re-optimization of network services. We present the design of the orchestrator and elaborate on the integration of Baguette with existing low-level network and cloud management frameworks

The eye of the beholder

This chapter addresses issues that arose from being a male researcher and art therapist conducting arts-based research with women who had experienced domestic violence and abuse. Engaging in such research required that I critically engage with issues of gender within the context of conducting research. Through the lens of one particular vignette taken from a larger study, this paper will engage with broader ideas about gender and the conducting of arts-based research and art therapy. Whilst this chapter will have relevance for those men engaged in research or art therapy that involves aspects of domestic violence and abuse, it will also have relevance to those who are interested in wider discussions to be had about the influence of gender upon relationships within therapy and research. This has always been a topic worthy of sustained investigation, but the contemporary emergence within public discourse about abuses of male privilege within various professions make this an especially important subject to attend to. Drawing upon the work of Sandra Harding (1998, 2004), Jeff Hearn (1998) and Ann Murphy (2012), I will explore how feminist standpoint theory and reflexivity helped to manage, and make sense of, the concerns and anxieties that arose whilst conducting research into violence against women. Anxieties about research becoming therapy merged with anxieties about being a male researcher working with women who had experienced domestic violence and abuse. Whilst this chapter does not aim to outline in depth what an arts-based research methodology looks like within the context of studying domestic violence and abuse, it begins by describing the methodology in enough detail to provide a context within which the nature of the research process can be appreciated. The findings of the research are presented in sufficient detail to allow the overall findings of the research to be understood. There then follows examples of words and images produced by one woman, who used her participation as a way of ensuring that she was seen clearly by myself and by other research participants. This aspect of wanting to be seen became an embodiment of the need to acknowledge my own standpoint and reflexive position as a male researcher. Evaluative comments about participation made by other women are used to show how vulnerability was a feature of taking part in this research for both participants and for me. The concept of vulnerability is examined with reference made to ideas about imagination and empathy from the perspective of feminist philosophy, which in turn helps to shape a discussion about the place of gender within research, art therapy, and the boundary between them. In keeping with the principles of feminist standpoint theory and strong objectivity, as set forth by Harding (1998), this chapter is written from a first-person perspective.University of Derb