Current Issue : October-December Volume : 2026 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 5 Articles
In this study, a probabilistic framework was developed to address uncertainty in multimedia risk assessment for susceptible populations while capturing population variability, illustrated by dioxin emissions from municipal solid waste incinerators. The framework integrates emission estimation, AERMOD dispersion modeling, and MEPAS multimedia modeling. Cancer risks were evaluated with dose-based slope factors and age-dependent adjustment factors (ADAFs) for early-life susceptibility. Three assessment approaches were compared: deterministic without ADAF adjustment, deterministic with ADAF adjustment, and probabilistic with ADAF adjustment. For the general population (n = 7058), stratified into adults and two susceptible subgroups, the P95 risks across all simulated grids (n = 139,287) increased from 5.5 × 10−9 to 1.4 × 10−8 (2.54-fold) after ADAF adjustment and further to 6.6 × 10−8 (an additional 4.71-fold) when inter-individual variability in IR/BW and CR/BW was incorporated through bivariate Monte Carlo simulation. For school children (n = 1879), the corresponding P95 risks increased from 6.9 × 10−10 to 3.0 × 10−9 (4.35-fold) and then to 6.3 × 10−9 (an additional 2.1-fold). The stepwise increase in risk across these approaches illustrates how the proposed framework reduces uncertainty and quantifies variability. Additional analysis examined uncertainty associated with gas–particle partitioning, ADAF adjustment, and inhalation slope factor extrapolation....
Despite the proliferation of asynchronous video instruction across higher education and K–12 contexts, educational technology lacks an integrated, design-oriented framework that explicitly addresses how cinematic composition choices influence the mechanisms through which learning occurs. This conceptual paper introduces Cinematic Instructional Design (CID), a provisional integrative framework that synthesizes insights from multimedia learning, instructor-presence research, multimodal communication, and film and media theory. Rather than treating cinematic form as pedagogy in itself, CID conceptualizes framing, sound design, editing rhythm, narrative structure, and visual signaling as design variables that may shape attention allocation, perceived social presence, affective engagement, and cognitive load, mechanisms that, in turn, may support or impede learning in asynchronous environments. Drawing on four decades of empirical research, CID articulates eight interrelated design dimensions, each linked to hypothesized causal mechanisms and operationalizable indicators. Unlike procedural production rubrics or purely cognitive-load frameworks, CID attends to the visual-compositional and socialaffective dimensions of instructional video that existing frameworks address incompletely. The framework is offered as a provisional, design-oriented synthesis rather than a validated theory: its value lies in clarifying a neglected design problem, specifying plausible mechanisms, and generating testable propositions for future design-based research, with particular attention to equity-relevant outcomes. The framework synthesizes research-based design principles drawn from multimedia learning, instructor-presence, multimodal communication, and narrative cognition research into a structured vocabulary that practitioners can apply and researchers can test....
The research of the Image Processing group at the Mathematics/Computer Science Department of the University of Bremen was initially driven by requirements from the field of image retrieval, but it progressed very quickly to video and multimedia document analysis including texts, images, videos, and sound. By adopting symbolic image and video feature descriptions, it could also cover different challenging application areas such as Internet image search, search in TV archives and digital media art libraries, support for blind people, RoboCup vision technology, intercultural analysis of TV broadcasts, and next generation visual archives. In a definitely ambitious (and most successful) endeavor in 2005/2006, eleven highly engaged master students of a one-year student course project integrated the available combined image, video, and sound research results (and OpenCV!) with the goal to implement a movie trailer generator for different Hollywood movie genres. Their result was improved by 26 students in a second two-year student course project, especially in the trailer composition phase....
Background: Vitreous floaters (VF) are common and typically benign but may cause significant anxiety due to misinterpretation of symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate the eectiveness of structured multimedia health education in reducing anxiety among patients with VF and to identify factors associated with anxiety severity. Methods: This prospective quasi-randomized controlled study was conducted between December 2023 and April 2025. Patients with symptomatic VF were allocated to an enhanced multimedia education group or a standard care group based on calendar week. Anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-state), and visual-related quality of life (VRQoL) was measured using the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire-25 (NEI VFQ-25) at baseline and 3 months. Between-group dierences in STAI-state change (1STAI-state) were analyzed, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed adjusting for baseline values. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with moderate-to-severe anxiety. Results: A total of 309 participants completed the study. Both groups showed significant reductions in STAI-state scores; however, the reduction was significantly greater in the multimedia group (1STAI-state: −5.22 vs. −1.09), with a between-group dierence of −4.13 (95% CI: −5.21 to −3.05, p < 0.001). ANCOVA confirmed significantly lower follow-up anxiety levels in the intervention group (p < 0.001). No significant between-group dierences were observed in VRQoL. Patients with higher education levels exhibited greater anxiety reduction. Factors such as older age, higher education, higher trait anxiety, and diabetes were independently associated with moderate-to-severe anxiety. Conclusions: Structured multimedia health education is more eective than standard counseling in reducing anxiety among patients with VF. These findings highlight the importance of optimized physician–patient communication as a non-invasive strategy to address psychological distress in benign ophthalmic conditions....
Wastewater treatment (WWT) is central to sustainable water management and environmental protection. At the same time, the sector’s ongoing digital transformation is increasing technical complexity and reshaping the competency profiles required of engineers, technicians, and plant operators. While digital technologies have been widely developed to support monitoring, control, and optimization of wastewater treatment plants, their systematic use for education, training, and workforce development remains insufficiently consolidated in the literature. This study presents a systematic review of peer-reviewed publications from 2020 to April 2025 addressing the use of digital technologies and multimedia systems for WWT education, professional training, and knowledge transfer. Following established systematic review guidelines, the analysis examines (i) the types of digital and multimedia tools reported, (ii) how these tools are integrated into training-oriented educational approaches, and (iii) the available evidence regarding educational outcomes. The findings reveal a pronounced asymmetry: operational digitalization advances rapidly, whereas explicitly instructional interventions remain comparatively scarce and are often weakly articulated from a pedagogical perspective. Reported evaluations primarily emphasize usability, user perceptions, and engagement, while rigorous assessments of learning outcomes, skill development, and readiness for professional practice are limited. Overall, the results indicate that the main barrier to leveraging digital tools for WWT education is not technological but pedagogical. This review clarifies the distinction between operation-oriented and training-oriented digitalization, synthesizes methodological gaps, and outlines directions for designing and evaluating effective digital learning strategies in the water sector....
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