The term “interactivity” has been defined in numerous ways in the context of communications, but a definition of interactivity as an instrumentally measurable parameter of conversations is still missing. In this paper, we approach this issue by applying a parametric analysis to telephone conversations recorded during speech quality tests. To this end, we extract the basic conversational paramet...

—Traditional battery-powered wireless sensor networks face many challenges to meet a wide range of demanding applications nowadays due to their limited energy. Although energy harvesting techniques can scavenge energy from the environment to sustain network operations, dynamics from the energy sources may lead to service interruption or performance degradation when the sources are unavailable....

We review experiments with bounded deferral, a method aimed at reducing the disruptiveness of incoming messages and alerts in return for bounded delays in receiving information. Bounded deferral provides users with a means for balancing awareness about potentially urgent information with the cost of interruption.

Divorce affects a significant number of children and parents worldwide. We interviewed 10 parents and five children to get a qualitative understanding of the challenges faced by these families and the role of technology in maintaining contact. We found that both parents had a strong need to maintain autonomy in raising the child, though the residential parent had more opportunities to be instru...

Aiming at the control problem of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) pilot-following formation with communication delay and interruption, a controller based on feedback linearization PD method is designed in this paper. Firstly, nonlinear, strongly coupled model transformed into second-order via method, then coordination consistency theory method. The Markov random jump process used to simulate...

Analysis of high-speed digital video images showed no apparent constriction or tenseness in the larynx and glottis during the production of geminate consonants. Glottal width for geminate consonants is slightly, but not much wider than their singleton counterparts. The glottal width depends largely on consonant types. Analysis of photo-electric glottograms showed that an interruption of glottal...

Interruptions in healthcare are often seen as distracting elements that need to be minimized. However, if designed effectively, interruption can also be used to increase efficiency, productivity, prevent errors, and even influence behavior. We propose a model to engineer persuasive interruptions based on the context of the users, the tasks they are involved with, and best presentations dependin...

Grid tariffs are the main source of income for distribution system operators (DSOs). Reductions of tariffs increase the cost pressure on DSOs; assuming they work efficiently tariff reductions potentially lead to a decrease of the electricity system's quality if no reliability of supply criteria are incorporated in the regulatory system. Our statistically analysis shows that the correlation betw...

This paper analyzes different analytical techniques to evaluate the expected cost at the load points and the system. The analytical techniques vary in their complexity and the data utilized during the evaluation. The information obtained by using those techniques which is useful to utilities for the better investment in the system. The collection of the additional data may result in higher inve...