Research methods from both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms were used to answer the question concerning how adult readers navigate through informational text embedded in a hypermedia environment to construct meaning.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Brett D. DePaola / Nobel S. Rebello / Previous research has showed that visual cues can improve learners' problem solving performance on conceptual physics tasks. In this study we investigated the influence of multimedia hints that included visual, textual, and audio modalities, and all possible combinations thereof, on students' problem solving performance and visual attention. The participants (N = 162) were recruited from conceptual physics classes for this study. Each of them participated in an individual interview, which contained four task sets. Each set contained one initial task, six training tasks, one near transfer task and one far transfer task. We used a 2 (visual hint/no visual hint) x 2 (text hint/no text hint) x 2 (audio hint/no audio hint) between participant quasi-experimental design. Participants were randomly assigned into one of the eight conditions and were provided hints for training tasks, corresponding to the assigned condition. Our results showed that problem solving performance on the training tasks was affected by hint modality. Unlike what was predicted by Mayer's modality principle, we found evidence of a reverse modality effect, in which text hints helped participants solve the physics tasks better than audio hints. Then we studied students’ visual attention as they solved these physics tasks. We found the participants preferentially attended to visual hints over text hints when they were presented simultaneously. This effect was unaffected by the inclusion of audio hints. Text hints also imposed less cognitive load than audio hints, as measured by fixation durations. And presenting visual hints caused more cognitive load while fixating expert-like interest areas than during the time intervals before and after hints. A theoretical model is proposed to explain both problem solving performance and visual attention. According to the model, because visual hints integrated the functions of selection, organization, and integration, this caused a relatively heavy cognitive load yet improved problem solving performance. Furthermore, text hints were a better resource for complex linguistic information than transient audio hints. We also discuss limitations of the current study, which may have led to results contrary to Mayer's modality principle in some respects, but consistent with it in others.

Análisis de la comunicación en la era digital a partir de los procesos de intercambio producidos dentro del triángulo pedagógico con la integración de herramientas tecnológicas. Reflexión sobre las formas mediación de la relación pedagógica y de mediatización del contenido a través de recursos educativos digitales que utilizan el lenguaje multimedia.

A research report subuutted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Degree awarded with distinction / This report describes a dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) - based call admission protocol tor distributed multimedia over ATM networks. The protocol incorporates the innovative idea of an extended QoS. This is a composite term which takes account of not only classic QoS multimedia measures, but also of the human aspect of the interaction through human receptivity. For this scenario, different QoS negotiation strategies have been formulated and then simulated with a view towards the establishment of a protocol knowledge base. Separately, a session pricing policy has been elaborated and its effect on user behaviour and network resource allocation studied. / Andrew Chakane 2018

by Chang Hsiao Hui Virina and Lee Kin On. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-83). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.v / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Commercial Multimedia Applications --- p.2 / Home Multimedia Application --- p.2 / Research Objectives --- p.3 / Structure of the Report --- p.3 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Existing Research Results in Hong Kong --- p.5 / World Market Vendor --- p.7 / Definition of Multimedia --- p.9 / Applications --- p.10 / Benefit to Customers --- p.11 / Customer Demand --- p.12 / Technological Development --- p.12 / Market Situation --- p.15 / Vision or Perceived Role of World Players --- p.18 / Positioning --- p.18 / Problems Encountered --- p.21 / Business Strategies --- p.21 / Multimedia in Hong Kong --- p.23 / Chapter III. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.25 / Purpose of Interview --- p.25 / Questionnaire Design --- p.26 / Selection of Appropriate Vendors --- p.26 / Preliminary Screening of Vendors --- p.27 / Face-to-Face Interview --- p.28 / Lists of Vendor Interviewed --- p.28 / Chapter IV. --- RESULTS --- p.30 / Vendors' Definition of Multimedia --- p.30 / Application & Applied Industry/Sector --- p.31 / Perceived Benefits to Customers --- p.32 / Perceived Customer Demand --- p.33 / Technology Development --- p.34 / Local Market Situation --- p.35 / Perceived Role --- p.36 / Vendor Positioning --- p.37 / Problems Encountered --- p.38 / Business Strategy (& Future Plan) --- p.39 / Chapter V. --- ANALYSIS --- p.41 / Customer Demand and Application --- p.41 / Problems Encountered --- p.43 / Local Characteristics --- p.44 / Business Strategy --- p.45 / Chapter VI. --- LIMITATIONS --- p.48 / Selection Bias --- p.48 / Non-coverage Bias --- p.48 / Interviewee Bias --- p.48 / Refusal to Disclose Sales Figures --- p.49 / Suggested Rectification --- p.49 / Further Research Area --- p.50 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSION --- p.51 / APPENDICES --- p.52 / Appendix 1 - Interview Result With CIM Systems Ltd --- p.52 / Appendix 2 - Interview Result With Apple Computer Ltd --- p.55 / Appendix 3 - Interview Result With Philips HK Ltd --- p.58 / Appendix 4 - Interview Result With Asia-CD --- p.61 / Appendix 5 - Interview Result With KPS --- p.64 / Appendix 6 - Interview Result With IBM HK Corporation --- p.66 / Appendix 7 - Interview Result With Pancha Books --- p.68 / Appendix 8 - Interview Result With System General Ltd --- p.71 / Appendix 9 - Interview Result With HK Productivity Council --- p.73 / Appendix 10 - Questionnaire On Multimedia Supplier --- p.76 / Appendix 11 - HK Economic and Socio-Demographic Environment --- p.78 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.81

The experience of fictional inconsistencies in games is surprisingly common. The goal was to determine if solutions exist for this problem and if there are inherent limitations to games as a medium that make storytelling uncommonly difficult. Termed ‘ludic dysnarrativa’, this phenomenon can cause a loss of immersion in the fictional world of a game and lead to greater difficulty in intuitively understanding a game’s rules. Through close textual analysis of The Stanley Parable and other games, common trends are identified that lead a player to experience dysnarrativa. Contemporary cognitive theory is examined alongside how other media deal with fictional inconsistency to develop a model of how information (fictional and otherwise) is structured in media generally. After determining that gaps in information are largely the cause of a player feeling dysnarrativa, it is proposed that a game must encourage imaginative acts from the player to prevent these gaps being perceived. Thus a property of games, termed ‘imaginability’, was determined desirable for fictionally consistent game worlds. Many specific case studies are cited to refine a list of principles that serve as guidelines for achieving imaginability. To further refine these models and principles, multiplayer games such as Dungeons and Dragons were analysed specifically for how multiple players navigate fictional inconsistencies within them. While they operate very differently to most single-player games in terms of their fiction, multiplayer games still provide useful clarifications and principles for reducing fictional inconsistencies in all games. Negotiation between agents (designers, players, game rules) in a game is of huge value to maintaining coherent fictional worlds and social information in some multiplayer games takes on a role close to that of fictional information in single player games. Dysnarrativa can also be used to positive effect in certain cases such as comedy games, horror games or for satirical purposes.

<p> Newspapers rely on content-based documentary photography to visually communicate current news events. As circulations declined in the mid-1980s, media owners persuaded editors into mixing traditional hard news on their front pages with reader-friendly soft news features. Content-based visual journalism was challenged by the encroachment of visual fluff, altering the character projected to readers.</p><p> Today, newspapers struggle to evolve into online &ldquo;news organizations&rdquo; and visual journalism competes with entertainment, advertising, and marketing to attract viewers. The central question for the future is, will the marketing pressure continue to dilute visual journalism and overload viewers with visual distractions? And, how will design and organization influence the viewers&rsquo; perception of credibility?</p><p> Through a series of elicitation interviews, this research examined how the visual choices that online newspapers make &mdash; their &ldquo;visual character&rdquo; &mdash; influence audience perceptions of news credibility. The responses showed that readers&rsquo; perceptions of credibility are influenced by the visual content on a newspaper Web site. The study participants gauged credibility based on factors like photography use, competing advertising, and design organization. The study also found that linking visual branding to the newspaper print version could add to credibility.</p><p>

Access scheduling is essentially power control with only on-off options. The second part is dealing with situations where user transmissions can exist simultaneously. Here, a problem of distributed power control for time varying systems is investigated in order to coordinate transmit power among users for their respective quality-of-service (QoS). We deal with a class of power control problems where the system link gains are assumed to be time varying and SIR estimates are allowed to be corrupted with bounded noises. A simple control algorithm is devised by applying a distributed, fixed-step approach. The feedback algorithm requires only local information. By modifying the fixed-step power control algorithm proposed by Sung and Wong, here we obtain a more robust version that can handle time varying link gains and measurement noises. The result extends the Foschini and Miljanic model to allow fading and measurement errors. Convergence property of the new algorithm is established. Simulation studies have been conducted and results show that it is effective. / In integrated wireless multimedia service, isochronous traffic of different connections can be scheduled by using a most regular binary sequence (MRBS). Such a sequence can schedule traffic in an evenly spaced manner to achieve any arbitrary rate asymptotically while avoiding excessive delay and buffering requirement. Flexible time slot assignment that can match requests exactly improves the bandwidth utilization efficiency in supporting multi-rate operations for traffics of various classes. The most regular binary sequence provides such a distributed solution for multi-access control that only requires a limited information exchange. Generally, the idea can be developed to support flexible resource allocation in various communication systems such as hybrid TD-CDMA and MC-CDMA systems. It results in an overall capacity gain. More interestingly, the MRBS transmission scheduling is applicable in a network sense. Deterministic end-to-end performance guarantees such as packet delay and buffering requirement can be investigated in a systematic way. Discussions of periodic binary sequences with interesting characteristics are presented in succession. / Chen Chung Shue. / "September 2005." / Adviser: Wing Shing Wong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: B, page: 3984. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-167). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Tese de mestrado. Multimédia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2009