M. Tech. (Department of Information and Communication Technology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Since their emergence in the 1990’s, recommendation systems have transformed the intelligence of both the web and humans. A pool of research papers has been published in various domains of recommendation systems. These include content based, collaborative and hybrid filtering recommendation systems. Recommendation systems suggest items to users and their principal purpose is to increase sales and recommend items that are predicted to be suitable for users. They achieve this through making calculations based on data that is available on the system. In this study, we give evidence that the research on group recommendation systems must look more carefully at the dynamics of group decision-making in order to produce technologies that will be more beneficial for groups based on the individual interests of group members while also striving to maximise satisfaction. The matrix factorization algorithm of collaborative filtering was used to make predictions and three movie recommendation for each and every individual user. The three recommendations were of three highest predicted movies above the pre-set threshold which was three. Thereafter, four virtual groups of varied sizes were formed based on four highest predicted movies of the users in the dataset. Plurality voting strategy was used to achieve this. A publicly available dataset based on Group Recommender Systems Enhanced by Social Elements, constructed by Lara Quijano from the Group of Artificial Intelligence Applications (GIGA), was used for experiments. The developed recommendation system was able to successfully make individual movie recommendations, generate virtual groups, and recommend movies to these respective groups. The system was evaluated for accuracy in making predictions and it was able to achieve 0.7027 MAE and 0.8996 RMSE. This study was able to recommend to virtual groups to enable social network group members to engage in discussions of recommended items. The study encourages members in engaging in similar activities in their respective physical locations and then discuss on social network.

A wide range of services and applications become possible when accurate position information for a radio terminal is available. These include: location-based services; navigation; safety and security applications. The commercial, industrial and military value of radio-location is such that considerable research effort has been directed towards developing related technologies, using satellite, cellular or local area network infrastructures or stand-alone equipment. This work studies and investigates two location techniques. The first one presents an implementation scheme for a wideband transmission and direction finding system using OFDM multi-carrier communications systems. This approach takes advantage of delay discrimination to improve angle-of-arrival estimation in a multipath channel with high levels of additive white Gaussian noise. A new methodology is interpreted over the multi carrier modulation scheme in which the simulation results of the estimated channel improves the performance of OFDM signal by mitigating the effect of frequency offset synchronization to give error-free data at the receiver, good angle of arrival accuracy and improved SNR performance. The full system simulation to explore optimum values such as channel estimation and AoA including the antenna array model and prove the operational performance of the OFDM system as implemented in MATLAB. The second technique proposes a low cost-effective method of tracking and monitoring objects (examples: patient, device, medicine, document) by employing passive radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. A multi-tag, (totalling fifty-six tags) with known ID values are attached to the whole patient’s body to achieve better tracking and monitoring precision and higher accuracy. Several tests with different positions and movements are implemented on six patients. The aim is to be able to track the patient if he/she is walking or sitting; therefore, the tests considered six possible movements for the patient including walking, standing, sitting, resting, laying on the floor and laying on the bed, these placements are important to monitor the status of the patient like if he collapsed and fall on the ground so that the help will be quick. The collected data from the RFID Reader in terms of Time Stamp, RSS, Tag ID, and a number of channels are processed using the MATLAB code.

The objective of this work is to enhance the awareness of the indoor propagation behaviour, by a set of investigations including simulations and measurements. These investigations include indoor propagation behaviour, local mean power estimation, proposing new indoor path loss model and introducing a case study on 60 GHz propagation in indoor environments using ray tracing and measurements. A summary of propagation mechanisms and manifestations in the indoor environment is presented. This comprises the indoor localization techniques using channel parameters in terms of angle of arrival (AOA), time of arrival (TOA) and received signal strength (RSS). Different models of path loss, shadowing and fast fading mechanisms are explored. The concept of MIMO channels is studied using many types of deterministic channel modelling such as Finite Difference Time Domain, Ray tracing and Dominant path model. A comprehensive study on estimating local average of the received signal strength (RSS) for indoor multipath propagation is conducted. The effect of the required number of the RSS data and their Euclidian distances between the neighbours samples are investigated over 1D, 2D and 3D configurations. It was found that the effect of fast fading was reduced sufficiently using 2D horizontal’s arrangement with larger spacing configuration. A modified indoor path loss prediction model is presented namely effective wall loss model (EWLM). The modified model with wall correction factors is compared to other indoor path loss prediction models using simulation data (for 2.4, 5, 28, 60 and 73.5 GHz) and real-time measurements (for 2.4 and 5 GHz). Different operating frequencies and antenna polarizations are considered to verify the observations. In the simulation part, EWLM shows the best performance among other models. Similar observations were recorded from the experimental results. Finally, a detailed study on indoor propagation environment at 60 GHz is conducted. The study is supported by Line of Sight (LoS) and Non-LoS measurements data. The results were compared to the simulated ones using Wireless-InSite ray tracing software. Several experiments have confirmed the reliability of the modelling process based on adjusted material properties values from measurements.

Denna rapport sammanfattar resultat av ett examensarbete på en högskoleingenjörsutbildningsom utfördes av två studenter på Malmö högskola.Arbetets syfte var att genomföra en mängd olika experiment med accelerometer, barometeroch GPS i en modern smarttelefon. Ett antal scenarier för en tänkbar sensoranvändning i applikationerformulerades för att vägleda olika experiment. Experimentdata dokumenterades noggrantoch analyserades med avsikten att skapa en databank med information för framtida studier.Analys av data inkluderar höjdbestämning i naturen och i byggnader med hjälp av barometersensor,geografisk position med hjälp av GPS, hastighet och acceleration under en hissfärdmed hjälp av accelerometer.Rapporten innehåller en omfattande litteraturstudie om användning av sensorer vid inomhuspositionering.Från analys av mätdata, kom vi fram till slutsatsen att är möjligt att beräkna höjdenfrån barometerdata med bra noggrannhet under optimala omständigheter. GPS höjdenfrån mätningarna har stor felmarginal jämfört med den verkliga höjden samt när den jämförsmed den beräknade höjden från barometern.Genom att utföra en numerisk integration på accelerometer-data kom vi fram till att det är möjligtatt beräkna ungefär hur långt man har färdats med en hiss, dock att vissa detaljer måste tasi beaktning. / This report summarizes the results of a degree Bachelor of engineering in Computer Scienceconducted by two students at Malmo University.Work aim was to conduct a variety of experiments with accelerometer, barometer and GPS in amodern smartphone. A number of scenarios for a possible sensor use in applications formulatedto guided experiments. Data is carefully documented and analyzed, with the intention tocreate a database of information for future studies. Analysis of the data includes the altitudedetermination in nature and in buildings using barometric sensor, geographic location usingGPS, speed and acceleration during an elevator journey with the help of accelerometer.The report contains a comprehensive literature review on the use of sensors for indoorpositioning.From our analysis of the measurement data, we conclude that it is possible to calculate thealtitude from barometric- information but good accuracy if there are optimum circumstances.GPS altitude from our measurements show faulty height by a large margin compared with theactual height and when it is compared with the calculated height of the barometer the barometricheight is closer to the actual height.By performing a numerical integration of the accelerometer data, the results show that it ispossible to calculate approximately how far you have traveled in meters in an elevator, howeverthere are some things that must be taken into consideration.

Magistro darbo objektas – Žiniatinklio 2.0 įrankiai. Magistro darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti Žiniatinklio 2.0 įrankių įtaką ir poreikį aukštajame moksle (studijose). Tikslui pasiekti iškelti šie uždaviniai: išskirti pagrindines Žiniatinklio 2.0 charakteristikas ir nustatyti jų poveikį aukštojo mokslo studijoms; išanalizuoti, palyginti ir išskirti Žiniatinklio 2.0 įrankių pagrindinius principus ir nustatyti, kokius įrankius tikslinga integruoti į aukštojo mokslo studijas; ištirti Žiniatinklio 2.0 įrankių (ne)naudojimo priežastis aukštojo mokslo studijose ir nustatyti konkrečių, potencialą turinčių įrankių, poreikį. Rengiant darbą naudoti teoriniai ir empiriniai tyrimo metodai. Teorinei daliai apibendrinti naudota analizės ir lyginamasis metodai. Žiniatinklio 2.0 įrankiams ir mokymo modelių transformacijoms struktūrizuoti, naudota apibendrinimo, dedukcijos, grupavimo, lyginamasis ir sintezės metodai. Empiriniai tyrimo metodai: apklausos (ekspertų interviu, grupinė diskusija, interviu). Magistro darbe buvo nagrinėtos pedagoginių inovacijų, mokymo modelių ir kitų svarbių magistro temai elementų interpretacijos pasauliniu mastu, remiantis įvairių pasaulio šalių mokslininkų darbais (C. Mcloughlin, M. Lee, Goodfellow, A. Chan, C. Barnatt, D. Huang, R. Behara, M. Rich, N.B. Dohn, P. Daniels M. Ebner). Nustatytas Žiniatinklio 2.0 ir kitų IKT poveikis aukštojo mokslo studijoms: procesams, subjektams, objektams. Atsižvelgiant į diskutuotiną ir nenusistovėjusį Aukštojo mokslo 2.0 modelį... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The subject matter of the master paper is the potential integration of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. First of all, scientific literature was analyzed to reveal the main principles of Web 2.0 and its impact to Higher Education studies. However, three main principles of modern Higher Education 2.0 conception were determined. The first principle is the usage of new resources on the Internet for learning and teaching. They include all the content on the Internet generated with Web 2.0 tools, such as Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, RSS, Social Bookmarks and more. The second principle is the new teaching and learning strategies. They should adopt a collaborative work, particular Web 2.0 tools, and the appropriate pedagogy methods. The main focus should be driven to the student evaluation, new competencies and skills to the students, and lecturers’ attitude to student. The third principle is new pedagogy models. The main focus is the pedagogy changes that should all include student-oriented approaches, such as conectivizm, social constructivism and others. A lot of new terms combined with “2.0” were presented in the scientific literature. However, all of them, such as Higher Education 2.0, E-learning 2.0, Pedagogy 2.0, Teaching Model 2.0 are still on the hot discussions among scientists as well as LMS specialists thought there are new thoughts of Higher Education 3.0. There are various suggestions for lecturers and institutions giving references for them what to start from... [to full text]

Nous présentons dans ce mémoire un modèle d'interaction outil-roche qui calcule les efforts de forage en fonction du déplacement dans la roche d'un outil de forage de type PDC, et permet d'évaluer ses propriétés directionnelles, à savoir, son indice d'anisotropie (steerability) et son angle de walk. Le mouvement de l'outil est défini par une translation suivant trois axes et une rotation suivant deux axes. L'angle de tilt, qui définit l'inclinaison de l'outil par rapport à l'axe du trou en cours de forage, est pris en compte dans le calcul des surfaces d'interactions effectives entre les différentes composantes de l'outil (structure de coupe, garde active et garde passive) et la roche. Ce modèle outil est établi à partir d'une modélisation de la coupe de roche par un taillant. Ce modèle de coupe élémentaire est construit de manière à être applicable aux différentes parties de l'outil. Les efforts élémentaires de coupe sont intégrés sur toute la structure de l'outil de forage afin de calculer ses propriétés directionnelles. Le modèle d'interaction outil-roche est validé à partir d'essais de forage directionnel réalisés sur un banc spécialement conçu pour reproduire le comportement des systèmes de forage dirigé existants. Il constitue un outil d'aide à la décision pour la sélection de l'outil de forage en fonction du système au bout duquel il sera fixé. Ce modèle pourra aussi être intégré dans une boucle de régulation automatique ou semi-automatique de contrôle et de correction de la trajectoire en temps réel. / This work deals with the formulation of global relationships between kinematic variables describing the penetration of a PDC bit into the rock and drilling forces acting on it. This allows us determine the bit directional properties in terms of steerability, which corresponds to the bit lateral aggressiveness, and walk, which describes the bit azimuth displacement with respect to the side force. The bit kinematic quantities are divided into a three-axis penetration vector and a two-axis angular penetration vector. The bit tilt, which describes the angle between the bit revolution axis and the borehole tangent, is used to compute the effective interaction surface between the bit's different components (cutting structure, active gauge and passive gauge) and the rock. A new cutter-rock interface law is set up and experimentally validated in order to compute elementary forces acting on all parts of a drill bit. Bit directional properties are computed after the integration of these elementary forces. The bit-rock interaction model is experimentally validated with directional drilling tests held on a full-scale drilling bench developed to reproduce Rotary Steerable Systems (RSS) directional behavior. Tests and theoretical results enabled us to fully understand the roles of tilt angle, bit design, operating parameters and rock properties in the deviation process of a PDC bit. The bit-rock interaction model is a decision support tool for optimal drill bit selection according to the RSS being used. It could also be embedded in a real-time Closed-Loop Guided Directional Drilling controller in order to correct the drilling direction or follow a planned borehole trajectory.