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A study in the effectiveness of online CPR recertification training for rural and remote nurses in CanadaRogers, Lorelei 22 May 2013 (has links)
<p> High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can increase survival from a cardiac event and better quality of life post event (Whitcomb & Schmied-Blackman, 2007). This can be made possible not only by an experienced team, but also by more frequent training and refreshers for health care providers (Hamilton, 2005). Rural and remote nurses may experience skill decay due to low-volume CPR use and location barriers that contribute to infrequent CPR recertification; two conditions that lead to low-quality CPR (Hamilton, 2005). Not available in Canada, online CPR training in the United States is accepted as a way to provide current, timely, and accessible recertification for health care professionals (ProCPR<sup>©</sup>, 2009). To assess the effectiveness of online CPR training in meeting Canadian rural and remote nurses' recertification needs, I used both pre- and post-training intervention constructs. A total of 32 nurses self-reported their competency prior to and following an online CPR recertification training course. I obtained data to answer five research questions regarding current CPR practices, barriers to recertification, the extent that the online CPR course affected nurses' competencies, nurses' satisfaction with online CPR training, and the potential cost versus benefit for employers. On average, participants used CPR once in the last year. Within the total group, 14 of the nurses (43.8%) had an expired CPR certificate that had been outdated, on average, for over 17 months. Nurses both with expired CPR certification (56.2%) and with current CPR certification (56.2%) improved significantly from pre-training scores (<i>M</i> = 19.25, <i> SD</i> = 6.201) to post-training scores (<i>M</i> = 22.88, <i> SD</i> = 5.369) with <i>p</i> < 0.001; <i>t</i> (31) = -4.048. Cohen's <i>d</i> was .63. Nurses with expired CPR certification experienced a greater increase in competency post-training than nurses did with current CPR certification, confirming the implications of skill decay and lapses in training. Despite hesitation at refreshing a decidedly tactile skill online, the study participants voiced overwhelming satisfaction with the quality and impact on competency that they obtained through the online format. This study concludes with statistical, practical, clinical, and potentially substantial, economic significance for the implementation of online CPR recertification and online training in Canada.</p>
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The Internet, Political Communications Research and the Search for a New Information ParadigmChiu, William Franklin 09 August 2013 (has links)
<p> The Internet, as a digital record of human discourse, provides an opportunity to directly analyze political communicative behavior. The rapid emergence of social online networks augurs a transformation in the quality and quantity of information people have to evaluate their political system. Digital formats instantiate new categories of actors and new capacities to intervene in political discourse. Existing theories of political communication fail to account for the time lag, speed, anonymity and nature of replication inherent in digital formats. To fully investigate the digital record, scholars need a new framework that apprehends the complex density of a multidirectional political discourse that defies traditional time controls. </p><p> Using information and linguistic theory we develop and apply a functional, information flow model that illuminates the conceptual relationships and capacities of people to shape their information environment. Actors are defined in terms of their communicative role in idea exchange and the logic of communication is alloyed with political considerations to examine the scopes of action and immersion scenarios that affect communicants. </p><p> Our modular and scalable theory offers a way to measure signal fidelity, node activation, and message branching. We define signaling and amplification schemes and effects and explore the benefits and disadvantages of amplification devices for speakers and recipients. We show how individual actors are linked by the micro information streams they receive and transmit. We are therefore able to model exposure conditions of a multiple input, noisy spectrum for citizens and provide a counterpoint to the simple, controlled environment of agenda-setting experiments.</p><p> Finally, due to its foundation in information theory, our framework provides a natural platform by which to organize and develop a research program that uses computational linguistics and data mining techniques.</p>
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Hegemonic "realness"? An intersectional feminist analysis of "RuPaul's Drag Race"Jenkins, Sarah Tucker 15 August 2013 (has links)
<p> <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> is one of the few reality television shows focusing on QLGBT (queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) identified individuals that has made it into mainstream consciousness. <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> debuted in 2009 and appears on the channels, Logo and VH1. This thesis analyzes the four seasons from 2009 through 2012. <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> provides a unique perspective on the ways that gender identity, sexuality, size, class, race, and ethnicity intersect and interact in people's lives. The television show augments many of these intersections and the challenges related to these identities while still reflecting the daily struggles that people experience. In many respects, the show works to promote messages of self-love and acceptance and makes an effort to praise each contestant. However, it also promotes many problematic and damaging stereotypes. This thesis conducts a feminist analysis in order to answer the question: How does <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> relate to hegemonic and oppressive stereotypes and roles associated with gender identity, sexual orientation, size, class, race and ethnicity? Does it challenge or reinforce such hegemonies? This thesis utilizes a number of secondary questions in its analysis. How does <i>RuPaul's Drag Race</i> portray fat and thin contestants? How do contestants' socioeconomic backgrounds fit into their portrayals on the show? How does <i> RuPaul's Drag Race</i> portray queer cultures, and are these portrayals stereotypical? How is race represented on the show; do racial stereotypes come into play? In order to answer these questions, this thesis examines visual imagery, narrative, and dialogue in the show as well as some supporting materials. It utilizes theories from cultural studies, women's studies, English, and communications within its analysis. This thesis concludes that although <i> RuPaul's Drag Race</i> does engage in some subversive behavior, it ultimately reinforces harmful hegemonic stereotypes.</p>
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Talking the Talk| An Exploration of Parent-Child Communication about CyberbullyingDroser, Veronica Anne 14 December 2013 (has links)
<p> Technology has, without a doubt, altered the social fabric of society. Mediated forms of communication have paved the way for more efficient production, and the vast amount of information available online has given people the opportunity to be more informed than ever. However, the rise of mediated communication has also presented a number of new threats. The current study focused on one of these threats, cyberbullying, and was interested in looking at how parents talk about and understand their child's cyberbullying behavior.</p><p> This study had the goal of uncovering if parents talk to their child about cyberbullying, and how they approach these conversations. The intent of this study was grounded in the idea that parent-child communication is a valuable tool for developing belief systems, as well as making sustainable, positive and effective changes to behavior and perceptions.</p><p> Ultimately, parents do not avoid conversations about cyberbullying with their children. Parents structure these conversations with the intention of positively changing their child's behavior and beliefs. Specifically, parents talk about cyberbullying with their children as an effort to decrease the perceived risk their child faces if he or she participates in cyberbullying. However, these conversations are limited because they are grounded in misrepresented media coverage of cyberbullying which intensifies cyberbullying behaviors. As such, media producers must work toward presenting more all encompassing and wide spread coverage of cyberbullying as an effort to educate parents about the variety of behaviors which relate to cyberbullying.</p>
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Cross-layer design for the transmission of multimedia traffic over fading channels.Quazi, Tahmid Al-Mumit. January 2009 (has links)
Providing guarantees in the Quality of Service (QoS) has become essential to the
transmission of multimedia traffic over wireless links with fading channels. However this
poses significant challenges due to the variable nature of such channels and the diverse QoS
requirements of different applications including voice, video and data. The benefits of
dynamic adaptation to system and channel conditions have been accepted, but the true
potential of optimized adaptation is lost if the layers operate independently, ignoring possible
interdependencies between them. Cross-layer design mechanisms exploit such
interdependencies to provide QoS guarantees for the transmission of multimedia traffic over
fading channels.
Channel adaptive M-QAM schemes are examples of some of the earliest works in the area of
cross-layer design. However, many of the original schemes use the assumption that
thresholds designed for AWGN channels can be directly applied to slow-fading channels.
The thresholds are calculated with a commonly used approximation bit error rate (BER)
expression and the first objective of the thesis was to study the accuracy of this commonly
used expression in fading channels. It is shown that that the inaccuracy of the expression
makes it unsuitable for use in the calculation of the threshold points for an adaptive M-QAM
system over fading channels. An alternative BER expression is then derived which is shown
to be far more accurate than the previous one. The improved accuracy is verified through
simulations of the system over Nakagami-m fading channels.
Many of the cross-layer adaptation mechanisms that address the QoS provisioning problem
only use the lower layers (physical and data link) and few explore the possibility of using
higher layers. As a result, restrictions are placed on the system which introduces functional
limitations such as the inability to insert more than one class of traffic in a physical layer
frame. The second objective in this thesis was to design a physical and application layer
cross-layer adaptation mechanism which overcomes this limitation. The performance results
of the scheme in both AWGN and fading channels show that the cross-layer mechanism can
be efficiently utilized for the purposes of providing error rate QoS guarantees for multimedia
traffic transmissions over wireless links. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.
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Adaptive Video Transmission over Wireless Channels with Optimized Quality of ExperiencesChen, Chao 28 March 2015 (has links)
<p>Video traffic is growing rapidly in wireless networks. Different from ordinary data traffic, video streams have higher data rates and tighter delay constraints. The ever-varying throughput of wireless links, however, cannot support continuous video playback if the video data rate is kept at a high level. To this end, adaptive video transmission techniques are employed to reduce the risk of playback interruptions by dynamically matching the video data rate to the varying channel throughput. In this dissertation, I develop new models to capture viewers' quality of experience (QoE) and design adaptive transmission algorithms to optimize the QoE. The contributions of this dissertation are threefold. </p><p> First, I develop a new model for the viewers' QoE in rate-switching systems in which the video source rate is adapted every several seconds. The model is developed to predict an important aspect of QoE, the time-varying subjective quality (TVSQ), i.e., the up-to-the-moment subjective quality of a video as it is played. I first build a video database of rate-switching videos and measure TVSQs via a subjective study. Then, I parameterize and validate the TVSQ model using the measured TVSQs. Finally, based on the TVSQ model, I design an adaptive rate-switching algorithm that optimizes the time-averaged TVSQs of wireless video users. </p><p> Second, I propose an adaptive video transmission algorithm to optimize the Overall Quality (OQ) of rate-switching videos, i.e., the viewers' judgement on the quality of the whole video. Through the subjective study, I find that the OQ is strongly correlated with the empirical cumulative distribution function (eCDF) of the video quality perceived by viewers. Based on this observation, I develop an adaptive video transmission algorithm that maximizes the number of video users who satisfy given constraints on the eCDF of perceived video qualities. </p><p> Third, I propose an adaptive transmission algorithm for scalable videos. Different from the rate-switching systems, scalable videos support rate adaptation for each video frame. The proposed adaptive transmission algorithm maximizes the time-averaged video quality while maintaining continuous video playback. When the channel throughput is high, the algorithm increases the video data rate to improve video quality. Otherwise, the algorithm decreases the video data rate to buffer more videos and to reduce the risk of playback interruption. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is close to a performance upper bound. </p>
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Common Christs| Christ Figures, American Christianity, and Sacrifice on Cult TelevisionHolder, Laura L. 07 April 2015 (has links)
<p> Shifts in social attitudes towards American Christianity have resulted in a changed representation of Christ figures, specifically in their representation on television. Traditional Christ figures, those who believed in unconditional love and self-sacrifice for the greater good, clung to the church view and were figures of virtue and innocence. Modern Christ figures have become what I call "Common Christs"—people who are less likely to be the image of sinless perfection and more often violent and profane saviors. These modern stand-ins are usually from blue-collar or lower class backgrounds; they are the Christs of the common man. Generally, these Common Christs are in opposition with the dogmatic authority of the Christian church. The storylines that have Common Christs as their heroes often depict the organized religion of the church as an enemy, a negative institution trying to prevent the salvation of the common man by the common man. The purpose of my dissertation is to examine Common Christs as they appear in cult television shows that embrace and make strong use of Christian mythology without being considered Christian television, specifically <i>The X-Files, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,</i> and <i>Supernatural,</i> to show how this changed image works as evidence of what I call the development of a textual religion. Ultimately, I hope that my discussion of Common Christs and textual religion will lead into a larger discussion between the academic camps of religious studies, pop culture studies and literary criticism about the importance of cross-disciplinary focus.</p>
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Video and voice coding for mobile ad-hoc collaborationManescu, Corneliu. January 2003 (has links)
Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2003. / Title from title page of source document. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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The technocapitalist spectacle : an interactive investigation of new media and video games as ideological forms /Krueger, Philip. January 2009 (has links)
Thesis (M.Des.)--York University, 2009. Graduate Programme in Design. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-65). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR51550
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Development of a MPEG-7 based multimedia content description and retrieval tool for internet protocol television (IPTV)Ncube, Prince Daughing Ngqabutho January 2017 (has links)
Search and retrieval of multimedia content from open platforms such as the Internet and IPTV platforms has long been found to be hugely inefficient. It has been noted that a major cause of such inefficient results is the improper labeling or incomplete description of multimedia content by its creators. The lack of adequate description of video content by the proper annotation of video content with the relevant metadata leads to poor search and retrieval yields. The creation of such metadata itself is a major problem as there are various metadata description standards which users could employ. On the other hand there are tools such as FFprobe that can retrieve important features of video that can be used in searching and retrieval. The combination of such tools and metadata description standards could be the solution to the metadata problem. The Multimedia Content Description Interface (MPEG-7) is an example of a metadata description standard. It has been adopted by TISPAN for the description of IPTV multimedia content. The MPEG-7 standard is rather complex, seeing as it has over 1200 global Descriptors and Description Schemes which a user would have to know in order to implement such technology. This complexity is a nuisance when we consider the existence of multitudes of amateur video producers. These multimedia content creators have no idea how to use the MPEG-7 standard to annotate their creations with metadata. Consequently, overloading of the IPTV platform with content that has not been annotated in a standardized manner occurs, making search and retrieval of the multimedia content (videos, in this instance) inefficient. Therefore, it was imperative to try and determine whether the use of the MPEG-7 standard could be made much easier by creating a tool that is MPEG-7 enabled which will allow for the annotation of video content by any user without concerning themselves about how to use the MPEG-7 standard. In attempting to develop a tool for metadata generation, it was incumbent for us to understand the issues associated with metadata generation for users wishing to create IPTV services. An extensive literature review on IPTV standardization was carried out to determine the issues associated with metadata generation for IPTV and their proposed solutions. An experimental research approach was taken in an attempt to figure out if our proposed solution to the lack of technical expertise by users about the MPEG-7 standard could be the final solution to the metadata generation problem. We developed a Multimedia Content Description and Management System (MCDMS) prototype which enabled us to describe video content by annotating it with 16 different metadata elements and storing the descriptions in XML MPEG-7 format. Incremental development and re-use oriented development were used during the development phase of this research. The MCDMS underwent functional testing; smoke testing of the individual system components and Big Bang integration testing for the combined components. Our results indicate that the more metadata is appended to a video as description the better it is to search for and retrieve. The MCDMS hides the complexity of MPEG-7 metadata creation from the users. With the effortless creation of MPEG-7 based metadata, it becomes easier to annotate videos. Consequently, search and retrieval of video content becomes more efficient. It is important to note that the description of multimedia content remains a complex feat. Even with the metadata elements laid out for users, there still exist other issues that affect metadata creation such as polysemy and the semantic gap. However, the provision of a tool that does the MPEG-7 standardizing behind the scenes for users when they upload a video makes the description of multimedia content in a standardized manner a much easier feat to achieve.
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