Kaiserslautern, Universität, Thesis (doctoral), 2000.

In this thesis we present a novel method for remote breathing detection using ultra-wideband(UWB) radar. This is a method that does not require any wearable sensors, makingit more comfortable and convenient for users. Furthermore, because of the penetratingcharacteristic of the transmitted signal through materials like walls, our system is usefulin emergency situations such as earthquakes, which require monitoring people who maybe trapped under rubble. In this thesis we present two new convolution-based methodsto extract breathing rate information from the received radar signal. We use two differenttemplate signals to detect a part of the received signal which contains breathing information.Using this information we are able to estimate the frequency of chest displacement.This method was tested on several people who were monitored while lying down on a bed.The subject’s position was determined and breathing rate was estimated. Experimental resultsincluding 20 different subjects are provided, showing that this is a viable method formonitoring breathing rate using a low-power UWB radar.i

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona / In this article, we report our implementation and comparison of two text clustering techniques. One is based on Wardâ s clustering and the other on Kohonenâ s Self-organizing Maps. We have evaluated how closely clusters produced by a computer resemble those created by human experts. We have also measured the time that it takes for an expert to â â clean upâ â the automatically produced clusters. The technique based on Wardâ s clustering was found to be more precise. Both techniques have worked equally well in detecting associations between text documents. We used text messages obtained from group brainstorming meetings.

Search engines are about excitement, optimism, hope and enrichment. Search engines are also about despair and disappointment. A researcher while using search engines for resource discovery might have experienced one or the other sentiments. One may say that user satisfaction depends much upon the search strategies deployed by the user. But at the same time its also depends upon the quality of search engine used for information retrieval. Today, there are many search engines used for resource discovery. They display the results of the searches made in readily-comprehensible manner with lots of customization possibilities including refining and sorting. This paper is an attempt to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the three most used and popular search engines for academic resource discovery: Google Scholar, Scirus and Windows Live Academic.

This text is an extract from the book Word Matters: multicultural perspectives on information societies. This book, which has been coordinated by Alain Ambrosi, Valérie Peugeot and Daniel Pimienta was released on November 5, 2005 by C & F à ditions. The text is under the Creative Commons licence, by, non commercial. Knowledge should be shared in free access... But authors and editors need an economy to keep on creating and working. If you can afford it, please buy the book on line.

Conference presentation on Library 2.0 and libraries building community initiatives currently happening in Australia.

The use of the Internet for civic engagement by the general public is becoming increasingly prevalent, yet research in this area is still sparse. More studies are particularly needed in the area of cross-cultural comparisons of online social movements or online peace movement organizations (PMOs). While it is possible that PMOs in diverse cultures differ in their collective action frames, it is unclear whether PMOs use collective action frames and, if so, how differently they are used. This paper describes a comparative study that examined websites of PMOs in Japan and Israel. Collective action frame is used as a theoretical framework to analyze seventeen websites, identifying the similarities and differences in the ways that online PMOs frame their activities. The findings indicate that these organizations employed various strategies to develop resonance, highlighting the importance of cultural resonance in framing online PMOs in different countries.

Currently, there are two formats for graphics that are used in Web publications: GIF (officially pronounced "jif") and JPEG (also known as JPG, and pronounced "jay-peg"). Each of these standards takes a computer image and compresses it up to 100 times. Today's browsers have built-in decompressors for each format, so many Web page creators do not know which one to use. The common myth is that JPEG creates smaller files, but this is not always true. The intention of this article is to help Web page creators make an informed decision when selecting a format for each graphic in a Web publication.

The use of the Internet for civic engagement by the general public is becoming increasingly prevalent, yet research in this area is still sparse. More studies are particularly needed in the area of cross-cultural comparisons of online social movements or online peace movement organizations (PMOs). While it is possible that PMOs in diverse cultures differ in their collective action frames, it is unclear whether PMOs use collective action frames and, if so, how differently they are used. This paper describes a comparative study that examined websites of PMOs in Japan and Israel. Collective action frame is used as a theoretical framework to analyze seventeen websites, identifying the similarities and differences in the ways that online PMOs frame their activities. The findings indicate that these organizations employed various strategies to develop resonance, highlighting the importance of cultural resonance in framing online PMOs in different countries.

The goal of the thesis presented herein is to provide an overview of current issues in auditory display design and to suggest how these issues may be applied to the development of applications for the World Wide Web (WWW). The software developed as part of this thesis, the SprocketPlug plug-in for Netscape Navigator, provides a tool for exploring various auditory display techniques at three levels of WWW development: HTML, Javascript, and Java. / The strength of SprocketPlug is that it enables WWW developers to incorporate interactive spatialized sound as an integrated component of WWW documents and applications. The implementation of SprocketPlug is based on currently available technology: the Netscape plug-in architecture, Netscape LiveConnect, and the Apple SoundSprocket.