A arquitetura IP Multimedia Subsystem, proposta pelo consórcio 3rd Generation Partnership Project como base para o suporte à convergência entre telefonia móvel e a Internet, define uma série de elementos arquiteturais, entre os quais, o componente Call Session Control Function e o protocolo Session Initiation Protocol. Session Initiation Protocol é um protocolo da camada de aplicação utilizado para estabelecer, modificar e terminar sessões multimídia entre dispositivos. Em redes baseadas na arquitetura IP Multimedia Subsystem, o Session Initiation Protocol é o responsável pela comunicação entre dispositivos e a rede, e entre os componentes responsáveis pelo gerenciamento de sessão. Nos últimos anos, estudos detectaram degradação de desempenho em redes baseadas na arquitetura IP Multimedia Subsystem em função das características centralizadas do Session Initiation Protocol e dos componentes de gerenciamento de sessão. Este trabalho apresenta uma arquitetura distribuída para redes baseadas em IP Multimedia Subsystem, tendo como fundamento o paradigma de computação paralela baseado em espaço de tuplas onde os servidores são organizados em uma rede P2P, com objetivo de prover uma infraestrutura escalável e tolerante a falhas. A validação da arquitetura em termos de desempenho e escalabilidade se deu através de modelagem formal e simulação com Redes de Petri Coloridas. / The IP Multimedia Subsystem architecture, proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project consortium as basis to support the convergence between mobile networks and the Internet, defines a set of architectural elements, among them, the Call Session Control Function and the Session Initiation Protocol. The Session Initiation Protocol is an application layer protocol used to establish, modify and terminate sessions between devices. On the IP multimedia subsystem based network, the Session Initiation Protocol play a key role on the communication between devices and the network, and between session management components. In the last years, studies have detected a performance bottleneck on IP multimedia subsystem networks due to centralized characteristic of the Session Initiation Protocol and in Session Control components. This work shows a distributed architecture for IP Multimedia Subsystem networks based on the tuple space paradigm, and the servers structured in a P2P network, aiming to achieve a scalable and fault-tolerant infrastructure. The validation of the architecture on the performance and scalability took place through the Coloured Petri Net formal modeling and simulation.

A arquitetura IP Multimedia Subsystem, proposta pelo consórcio 3rd Generation Partnership Project como base para o suporte à convergência entre telefonia móvel e a Internet, define uma série de elementos arquiteturais, entre os quais, o componente Call Session Control Function e o protocolo Session Initiation Protocol. Session Initiation Protocol é um protocolo da camada de aplicação utilizado para estabelecer, modificar e terminar sessões multimídia entre dispositivos. Em redes baseadas na arquitetura IP Multimedia Subsystem, o Session Initiation Protocol é o responsável pela comunicação entre dispositivos e a rede, e entre os componentes responsáveis pelo gerenciamento de sessão. Nos últimos anos, estudos detectaram degradação de desempenho em redes baseadas na arquitetura IP Multimedia Subsystem em função das características centralizadas do Session Initiation Protocol e dos componentes de gerenciamento de sessão. Este trabalho apresenta uma arquitetura distribuída para redes baseadas em IP Multimedia Subsystem, tendo como fundamento o paradigma de computação paralela baseado em espaço de tuplas onde os servidores são organizados em uma rede P2P, com objetivo de prover uma infraestrutura escalável e tolerante a falhas. A validação da arquitetura em termos de desempenho e escalabilidade se deu através de modelagem formal e simulação com Redes de Petri Coloridas. / The IP Multimedia Subsystem architecture, proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project consortium as basis to support the convergence between mobile networks and the Internet, defines a set of architectural elements, among them, the Call Session Control Function and the Session Initiation Protocol. The Session Initiation Protocol is an application layer protocol used to establish, modify and terminate sessions between devices. On the IP multimedia subsystem based network, the Session Initiation Protocol play a key role on the communication between devices and the network, and between session management components. In the last years, studies have detected a performance bottleneck on IP multimedia subsystem networks due to centralized characteristic of the Session Initiation Protocol and in Session Control components. This work shows a distributed architecture for IP Multimedia Subsystem networks based on the tuple space paradigm, and the servers structured in a P2P network, aiming to achieve a scalable and fault-tolerant infrastructure. The validation of the architecture on the performance and scalability took place through the Coloured Petri Net formal modeling and simulation.

This work is focused on the study of the intensity profile of optical beams. In the first part problematics of optical beams from theoretical point of view is discussed, Model of realistically circular symmetric beam in an ideal lossless, stationary, homogeneous and isotropic medium is formed in Matlab®. The next part of the thesis deals with implementation of automatic workplace for measuring intensity profile of optical beams. Within the thesis - PCB desing of photodetector in Eagle®, is discussed. Custom application for controlling the motorized linear stage M – IMS 400 and communication with photodetector in the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010® was created.

Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) is an architecture for services such as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in IP based communication systems. IMS is standardized by the 3GPP standardization forum, and was first released in 2002. Since then IMS has not had the wide adoption by operators as first anticipated. As 3G already supported voice and video, the operators could not justify the expense of IMS. The current emergence of the fourth generation mobile communication system named Long Term Evolution (LTE) has, however, increased the need for knowledge of IMS and of creating services for it. LTE networks are IP only networks that provide low latency. In order to use LTE for making phone calls, VoIP technologies are needed. IMS is the architecture intended to be used for Voice over LTE (VoLTE). The need for tools for education within IMS was seen in 2006 by Enea Experts in Linköping, Sweden. The author of this thesis designed an IMS for educational purposes, but the project was never fully completed. This thesis will reexamine the design decisions previously made by the author. The requirements stated by the customer remain: that an IMS with basic signaling and logging should be easy to install, maintain, and evolve at a low cost. A literature study of IMS and VoLTE is presented to contribute with knowledge in these areas. The previous design and implementation made by the author is presented and analyzed. The third-party software that the previous implementation was based on is reexamined. Existing open source components are analyzed in order to identify how they can be used to solve the problem and to identify what remains to be developed in order to fulfill the requirements. New design suggestions, presented in today´s context, are proposed and verified using analytical reasoning and experiments. The outcome of the final work is new verified design decisions for the customer to use when implementing a new IMS for educational purposes. The thesis should also provide useful insights which instructors and students can use to teach and learn more about IMS. / Internet Protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) är en arkitektur för tjänster, som IP-telefoni (Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP), i IP baserade kommunikationssystem. IMS standardi¬seras av standardiseringsforumet 3GPP och första utgåvan släpptes år 2002. IMS fick dock inte det breda genomslag bland operatörer som förväntats. Eftersom 3G redan hade stöd för tal och video kunde operatörerna inte se skäl till ytterligare utgifter för IMS. Den fjärde generationens mobila kommunikationssystem, Long Term Evolution (LTE) är helt IP-baserat och ger lägre fördröjningar i nätet. För att kunna ringa telefonsamtal via LTE krävs VoIP-teknik. IMS är en arkitektur avsedd för att användas för Voice over LTE (VoLTE). Den nuvarande utvecklingen av LTE har därför ökat behovet av kunskap om IMS och av utveckling av IMS-tjänster. Enea Experts i Linköping insåg behovet av verktyg för utbildning inom IMS år 2006. Författaren av det här examensarbetet designade därför ett IMS för utbildningssyfte. Projektet slutfördes dock aldrig. Syftet med examensarbetet är att ompröva de tidigare designbesluten. Kundens krav kvarstår: att ett IMS med grundläggande signalering och loggning bör vara enkelt att installera, enkelt att underhålla och möjligt att utveckla till en låg kostnad. Arbetet innehåller en litteraturstudie av IMS och VoLTE för att ge en inblick i dessa områden. Den tidigare designen och implementationen presenteras och analyseras. Tredjeparts mjukvara, som den tidigare implementationen baserades på, omprövas. Befintliga programvaror med öppen källkod analyseras i syfte att kartlägga hur de kan användas för att lösa uppgiften, samt att identifiera vad som återstår att utveckla för att uppfylla kraven. Nya beslut kring design presenteras och besluten verifieras med experiment och analytiskt resonemang. Resultatet av detta examensarbete innefattar nya verifierade beslut kring design som kunden kan använda vid utveckling av ett nytt IMS för utbildningssyfte. Arbetet erbjuder också värdefulla insikter som instruktörer och elever kan använda för att undervisa samt för att lära sig mer om IMS.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The IMS(In-vehicle Monitoring Subsystem) of VMS(Vehicle Monitoring System) is the multifunctional and complex integrate embedded system, which sends the data of various in-vehicle devices to MC(Monitoring Center) and accepts commands and schedules from there. Using GPRS platform in this system make it possible for real-time and effective data transmission. This paper proposes some new insights on IMS applied to public traffic, including its software and hardware composition, and its realization method.

Plusieurs tests médicaux, comme celui du dépistage du cancer du sein, se basent sur l’observation de section tissulaire sous un microscope. Ces tests se basent sur l’interprétation d’un spécialiste et les résultats peuvent varier d’un expert à un autre dû la subjectivité des observations. L’utilisation d’une technique analytique offrant une quantification et une identification de cibles moléculaires dans une section tissulaire permettrait aux experts de produire des diagnostics plus objectifs et diminuerait possiblement le nombre de faux diagnostics. Les travaux présentés dans ce mémoire portent sur le développement d’une technique SPRi-MALDI-IMS permettant l’imagerie en deux dimensions de protéines contenues dans une section tissulaire. La MALDI-IMS est la technique de choix pour l’imagerie de biomolécules dans les sections tissulaires. Par contre, elle ne parvient pas à elle seule à quantifier de façon absolue le matériel adsorbé à la surface. Donc, le couplage de la MALDI-IMS avec la SPRi permet la quantification absolue de protéines en deux dimensions et crée une technique répondant aux besoins des experts médicaux. Pour ce faire, nous avons étudié, l’effet de la chimie de surface sur la nature et la quantité de matériel adsorbé à la surface du capteur. De plus, la cinétique de transfert des protéines du tissu vers le capteur a dû être optimisée afin de produire des empreintes correspondant au tissu d’origine, afin d’atteindre la gamme dynamique des instruments SPRi et MALDI-IMS. La technique résultante de ces optimisations permet d’obtenir les premières images quantitatives et qualitatives de protéines en deux dimensions d’une seule section tissulaire. / Several medical tests, such as breast cancer screening, are based on the observation of tissue section under a microscope. These tests rely on the interpretation of a specialist and the results can vary due to subjectivity of these analyses. Using an analytical technique able to quantify and identify molecular targets in a tissue section would enable experts to produce more objective diagnostic and possibly reduce the number of misdiagnosis. The work presented in this thesis focuses on the development of a SPRi-MALDI-IMS technique for imaging proteins in a tissue section. MALDI-IMS is the contemporary technique of choice for biomolecule imaging in tissue sections. However, absolute quantification of material absorbed to the surface cannot be performed using MALDI-IMS. The absolute quantification of proteins in two dimensions was successfully achieved by coupling of the MALDI-IMS with SPRi. Accordingly, we investigated by studying the nature of the surface chemistry and the amount of material adsorbed on the sensor’s surface. In addition, the kinetics of the protein transfer had to be optimized to produce imprints corresponding to the transferred tissue and to reach the dynamic ranges of both SPRi and MALDI-IMS instruments. The resulting technique led to quantitative and qualitative images of proteins in two dimensions of a single tissue section. It is envisioned that SPRi-MALDI-IMS can eventually meet the needs of medical experts for pathological screening.

Master of Engineering (Research) / Educational standards are having a significant impact on e-Learning. They allow for better exchange of information among different organizations and institutions. They simplify reusing and repurposing learning materials. They give teachers the possibility of personalizing them according to the student’s background and learning speed. Thanks to these standards, off-the-shelf content can be adapted to a particular student cohort’s context and learning needs. The same course content can be presented in different languages. Overall, all the parties involved in the learning-teaching process (students, teachers and institutions) can benefit from these standards and so online education can be improved. To materialize the benefits of standards, learning resources should be structured according to these standards. Unfortunately, there is the problem that a large number of existing e-Learning materials lack the intrinsic logical structure required, and further, when they have the structure, they are not encoded as required. These problems make it virtually impossible to share these materials. This thesis addresses the following research question: How to make the best use of existing open learning resources available on the Internet by taking advantage of educational standards and specifications and thus improving content reusability?In order to answer this question, I combine different technologies, techniques and standards that make the sharing of publicly available learning resources possible in innovative ways. I developed and implemented a three-stage tool to tackle the above problem. By applying information extraction techniques and open e-Learning standards to legacy learning resources the tool has proven to improve content reusability. In so doing, it contributes to the understanding of how these technologies can be used in real scenarios and shows how online education can benefit from them. In particular, three main components were created which enable the conversion process from unstructured educational content into a standard compliant form in a systematic and automatic way. An increasing number of repositories with educational resources are available, including Wikiversity and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseware. Wikivesity is an open repository containing over 6,000 learning resources in several disciplines and for all age groups [1]. I used the OpenCourseWare repository to evaluate the effectiveness of my software components and ideas. The results show that it is possible to create standard compliant learning objects from the publicly available web pages, improving their searchability, interoperability and reusability.

<p>With the standardization of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the telecommunications scene becomes more and more converged and in the future we will most likely access our services from all kinds of devices and link them together. One important future access method that has so far been left out of the standardization is television. There is a need for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) to work together with IMS and this thesis focuses on one aspect of that convergence, namely charging.</p><p>The problem explored in this thesis is if there is an efficient way of charging for IPTV services while taking advantage of the IMS charging functionality and this is done for two aspects of the problem. First, the possiblilty of an efficient Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling schema is investigated and then a good charging Application Programming Interface (API) to be used when developing applications is investigated. The findings of these two investigations are then tested and improved during the implementation of a demo application.</p><p>This thesis delivers specifications for a signaling schema that enables a Set-Top Box (STB) to pass charging information to an IMS network via INFO requests inside a special charging session. The schema is small and extendable to ensure that it can be modified further on if necessary. The thesis also delivers an encapsulating and intuitive charging API to be used by developers who want to charge for their services.</p>

La incorporació de les noves Tecnologies de la Informació i la Comunicació (TIC) al camp de l'educació ha fet possible la creació de nous entorns per l'educació que faciliten els processos d'ensenyament i aprenentatge, afegint noves eines de treball i funcionalitats i fent possible la formació per a qualsevol individu de manera no presencial i asíncrona. En aquest sentit, la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) és una universitat sorgida de la societat de la informació que disposa del seu propi entorn virtual d'aprenentatge, un laboratori únic per a la innovació docent. Seguint la “Declaració de Bolonya” i l'Espai Europeu d'Educació Superior (EEES), el model educatiu de la UOC està centrat en el concepte d'activitat com un mitjà per a que l'estudiant assoleixi noves competències i, cada vegada més, aposta per la flexibilitat i adaptació del procés d'aprenentatge. En aquest marc, el present treball de tesi fa servir les TIC com un mitjà per a facilitar els procés d'adquisició de competències de cada estudiant. Es proposa la creació d'itineraris formatius adaptatius (IFAs) mitjançant l'especificació IMS-Learning Design (IMS-LD) per treballar la formació adaptativa. Aquesta consisteix en proporcionar als estudiants, en cada moment, les activitats i els recursos que més s'ajusten al seu perfil, oferint a cada estudiant un itinerari concret de formació. Conseqüentment, es produeix una adaptació constant a la progressió de l'estudiant que pot afavorir el seu procés d'aprenentatge, esdevenint un primer pas cap a la personalització, un dels objectius de l'EEES. Amb aquest objectiu, es descriu com es realitza tant el disseny conceptual dels itineraris formatius adaptatius, com la seva creació i implementació amb IMS-LD. També es descriu el procés d'edició i execució dels itineraris amb les eines seleccionades (ReCourse i CopperCore) i es mostren les limitacions existents per implementar la formació adaptativa i com s'han abordat. Finalment, per demostrar la seva viabilitat i aplicació real en un entorn virtual d'aprenentatge, es realitzen dues proves pilot en el marc dels estudis d'Informàtica, Multimèdia i Telecomunicació a la UOC. En aquestes proves pilot s'han implementat diferents itineraris formatius adaptatius creats amb IMS-LD, proporcionant les bases d'un primer pas cap a la introducció de la formació adaptativa en l'educació superior. / The inclusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the field of education has made possible the creation of new environments for education that facilitate the processes of teaching and learning, adding new tools and features and making possible training for any individual using a distance and asynchronous model. The Open University of Catalonia (UOC) is a university arising from the information society that has its own virtual learning environment, a unique laboratory for educational innovation. Following the ``Bologna Declaration'' and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the UOC's educational model is centered on the concept of activity as a means for the student to achieve new competences and, as a distance learning institution, the UOC is increasingly committed to flexibility and adaptability of the learning process. In this context, this thesis tries to facilitate the learning process of each student by means of ICT. The work presented proposes adaptive learning paths using IMS-Learning Design (IMS-LD) in order to achieve adaptive learning. Adaptive learning provides students, at all times, activities and resources that best fits their profile, giving each student a specific learning path. Consequently, there is a constant adaptation to the progression of the students that can facilitate their learning process, becoming a first step towards personalization, one of the EHEA main objectives. Our proposal describes the conceptual design of adaptive learning paths as well as their creation and implementation using IMS-LD. It also analyzes the edition and run-time processes of the adaptive learning paths using the selected tools (ReCourse and CopperCore) showing their limitations when this adaptive scenario is taken into account and providing solutions to the encountered shortcomings. Finally, as a proof of concept, we present two different experiments performed with subjects of the department of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications of the UOC. In these experiments, different adaptive learning paths have been implemented and tested using IMS-LD, providing the basis for a first step towards the introduction of adaptive learning paths in higher education.

Sustaining the safety and operability of civil infrastructure assets, including buildings, is a complex undertaking that requires a perpetual cycle involving inspection, and further decisions for renewal fund allocation. However, inspection, which is the basis for all subsequent decisions, is a complex task to manage, particularly when a large number of assets are involved. The current lack of a structured process with visual referencing as well as the high subjectivity and inflexibility to changing inspection requirements make current inspections very costly and time consuming. This research improves the building inspection process by introducing a 3D system for inspection management that has four unique features: (1) a structured assessment approach that considers multiple organizations, buildings and inspectors, using a GIS interface; (2) a 3D visual referencing method for marking problem areas during inspections to facilitate all on-site inspections, thus reducing time and cost; (3) a visual guidance module to reduce inspection subjectivity; and (4) a flexible module for designing different assessment types. The proposed inspection management system creates 3D building plans from 2D Computer-Aided Drawing (CAD) to provide location referencing that enhances inspection effectiveness. The visual guidance system allows inspectors with various experience levels to perform consistent inspections and requires less training, thus reducing costs. Flexible inspection generation also allows a variety of inspection types, such as condition and level of service, to be readily incorporated. A computerized prototype system has been developed using the Windows Presentation Foundation’s XAML markup language with underlying C# programming on a tablet computer for experimentation. The thesis provides a detailed description of system development and reports the benefits of the system on a sample inspection. Accordingly, the system has proven most useful for large organizations that own a large number of building assets that require frequent inspections.