Machine-Type Video Communication Using Pretrained Network for Internet of Things

With the increasing demand for internet of things (IoT) applications, machine-type video communications have become an indispensable means of communication. It is changing the way we live and work. In machine-type video communications, the quality and delay of the video transmission should be guaranteed to satisfy the requirements of communication devices at the condition of limited resources. It is necessary to reduce the burden of transmitting video by losing frames at the video sender and then to increase the frame rate of transmitting video at the receiver. In this paper, based on the pretrained network, we proposed a frame rate up-conversion (FRUC) algorithm to guarantee low-latency video transmitting in machine-type video communications. At the IoT node, by periodically discarding the video frames, the video sequences are significantly compressed. At the IoT cloud, a pretrained network is used to extract the feature layers of the transmitted video frames, which is fused into the bidirectional matching to produce the motion vectors (MVs) of the losing frames, and according to the output MVs, the motion-compensated interpolation is implemented to recover the original frame rate of the video sequence. Experimental results show that the proposed FRUC algorithm effectively improve both objective and subjective qualities of the transmitted video sequences.

Emergency Telepsychiatry

Emergency telepsychiatry is the evaluation and treatment of patients experiencing mental health crises using audio/video communications. Patients in hospital emergency departments (EDs) often experience long waits, delayed treatment, and uncomfortable conditions when in-person psychiatric care is not readily available; prolonged lengths of stay in the ED also increase hospital costs. Telepsychiatry can make psychiatric care more accessible and timely by linking mental health specialists in various locations to patients in EDs. Initial data indicate that the financial investment in emergency telepsychiatry is more than offset by savings in ED and hospital costs. Rapid availability of telepsychiatric consultation also improves the quality of care in EDs and leads to more appropriate and timely dispositions of patients.

Television as a Cultural and Communicative System: Evolution Directions and Modern Boundaries

Russian science has not yet developed a stable understanding of the essence and generic affiliation of television, which continues to have a powerful multidirectional impact on the cultural and social processes of our time. The proposed characteristic of television as an independent cultural and communicative system allows highlighting its functioning as a separate cultural phenomenon that cannot be reduced to other forms of communicative activity. At the same time, in line with the system-cultural approach, the article substantiates the interaction of the main system-forming factors within the television system: those are artistic-entertaining, economic, informational, political, and technological. Constant consideration of all these factors when examining any aspect of television communication should become the methodological basis for studying television as a system.A system-diachronic analysis of television, revealing the main directions of its nonlinear development through the mutual influence of the system-forming factors, allowed drawing the following conclusions.Modern television is increasingly acting not so much as a means, but as a method of communication. This leads to a reduction in the significance of the content of a television utterance and, conversely, to the absolutization of the format, which determines both the content itself and the ritualized processes of television communication.Significant changes in television communication occurred in the first decades of the 21st century under the influence of Internet technologies: the individualization of television viewing and the spread of “out-of-studio” forms of television production, the improvement of image quality and the democratization of video recording technologies leads to the fact that television ceases to perceive itself as a utilitarian means of broadcasting off-screen reality, and is increasingly positioned as an independent cultural source.Television in the 21st century has expanded its boundaries, having absorbed the vast sphere of Internet and video communications. The modern television system can be understood as a set of audiovisual messages intended for public display and perceived in non-specialized everyday living conditions.

F1-taught orthopaedic teaching programme for students (FOTS)

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted students learning, with the time off resulting in students ‘de-skilling’, increasing concerns for upcoming observed structured clinical examinations. Foundation Year 1 (F1) doctors (F1s), despite being expected to teach, rarely receive formal preparation, with COVID-19 exacerbating opportunities to practice. As such, a national orthopaedic teaching programme was designed to provide F1s with opportunities to develop their teaching skills and to synergistically teach medical students how to perform clinical orthopaedic examinations.MethodsSix weekly sessions, each delivered by two newly qualified F1 tutors, on each joint examination were delivered online via Zoom Video Communications (USA). Presession and postsession multiple choice questions (MCQs) were provided to students to assess improvement in knowledge. Anonymous feedback forms were provided to both students and tutors.ResultsOf the 341 students that attended, 87.1% provided feedback. 86.2% felt that they had de-skilled due to time off, with a mean 15 weeks off from placement. Based on a 5-point Likert scale, students displayed a mean improvement in confidence (1.9±1.1, p<0.001) and MCQ scores (1.4±1.3, p<0.001) before and after the sessions. 91.6% and 95.3% agreed that the use of online teaching increased attendance and laid the foundation for practice. Of the six tutors, all reported improvement in confidence to teach and teaching skills.ConclusionWe demonstrate that online delivery of clinical orthopaedic examinations is effective, increasing the knowledge and confidence of students, while providing opportunities for F1s to teach. We present our findings to encourage similar teaching programmes to be adopted at other locations and specialties, to synergistically benefit students, doctors and ultimately, patients.

A NETWORK PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF WEBRTC AND SIP AUDIO AND VIDEO COMMUNICA TIONS

Multimedia services are one of the internet needs with high data traffic network count since 2019. Two of the multimedia services, Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), have been widely used in applications for conducting video conferencing. The main objective of this research is to analyze network performance by an application with a client-server for audio and video communications developed with WebRTC and SIP protocols. The SIP system uses the FreePBX server, and the softphone application uses Bria. Whereas WebRTC uses JavaScript with servers on Ubuntu using Node.js. The analysis application uses a star topology and runs on a local network using Wi-Fi. After testing, the results show that the throughput, jitter, and packet loss of WebRTC are better than SIP. This result is caused by several factors including the type of codec, the type of platform, and the way of signaling and routing of each protocol.

Implementasi Mos dan E-Model Untuk Mengetahui Kualitas Komunikasi Jaringan VoIP

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a voice communication technology (voice) that uses IP which can be done electronically and in realtime. In building VoIP devices used such as IPPBX Server, IPPBX Gateway IP and other supporting devices such as mikrotik. To design VoIP generally implemented using a local area network (LAN) or a wireless local area network (WLAN). In this study, an analysis of the quality of VoIP network communication is to determine the problems caused by communication using VoIP, so that VoIP can be used to maximize the existing internet network. This VoIP network can save costs when communicating such as video communications or video conferencing.

Incorporation of a Statewide Webinar Series into an Existing County-based Beef Cattle Extension Program

With the objective of continuing educational delivery while county Extension offices were unable to host large group meeting due to pandemic response regulations, a series of webinars were developed as a component of the Tennessee Master Beef Producer program. A secondary objective was to maintain a county-based approach to programmatic delivery. To reach these objectives, individual webinars (Zoom Video Communications, San Jose, CA; n = 9), each lasting approximately 1.5 hr were developed by UT Extension Specialists and offered between October and November of 2020 covering the topics of breeding and genetics, reproductive management, nutrition, animal handling, economics, health management, and forages. Questions were administered during the live session via the Zoom polling function to assess production statistics and collect evaluation data. The series was advertised in local communities through UT Extension County Agents. Agents were given the opportunity to choose as many or as few to incorporate into their local delivery and could choose to give producers the option of viewing at home, at socially distanced group meetings, or either. Interaction was limited to the chat function within Zoom with the expectation that attendees would make audio and video interaction difficult to manage. Total live participation was 8,009 and averaged 890 ± 15.3 unique views per session. Each webinar was recorded and posted to YouTube to be used by agents for later delivery. In-webinar polling showed that an average of 91% of the webinar participants planned to implement a change on their operation as a direct result of information provided in the presentation. Post-webinar Likert scale (1 to 5) analysis of participants indicated approval of speaker ability (4.52 ± 0.03) and content quality (4.51 ± 0.03). These results indicate a high adoption rate by agents and that webinars are an effective tool for achieving behavioral change through a county-based Extension system.

Stochastic Adaptive Forwarding Strategy Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning for Secure Mobile Video Communications in NDN

Named Data Networking (NDN) can effectively deal with the rapid development of mobile video services. For NDN, selecting a suitable forwarding interface according to the current network status can improve the efficiency of mobile video communication and can also avoid attacks to improve communication security. For this reason, we propose a stochastic adaptive forwarding strategy based on deep reinforcement learning (SAF-DRL) for secure mobile video communications in NDN. For each available forwarding interface, we introduce the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm to obtain a more robust forwarding strategy. Moreover, we conduct various numerical experiments to validate the performance of SAF-DRL. Compared with BR, RFA, SAF, and AFSndn forwarding strategies, the results show that SAF-DRL can reduce the delivery time and the average number of lost packets to improve the performance of NDN.

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Optogenetics, Ethical Issues Affecting DBS Research, Neuromodulatory Approaches for Depression, Adaptive Neurostimulation, and Emerging DBS Technologies

We estimate that 208,000 deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices have been implanted to address neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders worldwide. DBS Think Tank presenters pooled data and determined that DBS expanded in its scope and has been applied to multiple brain disorders in an effort to modulate neural circuitry. The DBS Think Tank was founded in 2012 providing a space where clinicians, engineers, researchers from industry and academia discuss current and emerging DBS technologies and logistical and ethical issues facing the field. The emphasis is on cutting edge research and collaboration aimed to advance the DBS field. The Eighth Annual DBS Think Tank was held virtually on September 1 and 2, 2020 (Zoom Video Communications) due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting focused on advances in: (1) optogenetics as a tool for comprehending neurobiology of diseases and on optogenetically-inspired DBS, (2) cutting edge of emerging DBS technologies, (3) ethical issues affecting DBS research and access to care, (4) neuromodulatory approaches for depression, (5) advancing novel hardware, software and imaging methodologies, (6) use of neurophysiological signals in adaptive neurostimulation, and (7) use of more advanced technologies to improve DBS clinical outcomes. There were 178 attendees who participated in a DBS Think Tank survey, which revealed the expansion of DBS into several indications such as obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and Alzheimer’s disease. This proceedings summarizes the advances discussed at the Eighth Annual DBS Think Tank.