An Analytic Transform Kernel Derivation Method for Video Codecs

In the standardization of versatile video coding (VVC), discrete cosine transform (DCT)-2, discrete sine transform (DST)-7, and DCT-8 are regarded as the primary transform kernels. However, DST-4 and DCT-4 can also be considered as the transform kernels instead of using DST-7 and DCT-8 owing to their effectiveness in smaller resolution test sequences. To implement these different block size transform kernels, a considerable amount of memory has to be allocated. Moreover, memory consumption to store different block size transform kernels is regarded as a major issue in video coding standardization. To address this problem, a common sparse unified matrix concept is introduced in this study, where any block size transform kernel matrix can be obtained after some mathematical operations. The proposed common sparse unified matrix saves approximately 80% of the static memory by storing only a few transform kernel elements for DCT-2, DST-7, and DCT-8. Full-required transform kernels are derived using the stored transform kernels and generated unit-element matrices and a permutation matrix. The static memory required is only for 1648 elements instead of 8180 elements, each with 8-bit precision. The defined common sparse unified matrix is composed of two parts: a unified DST-3 matrix and a grouped DST-7 matrix. The unified DST-3 matrix is used to derive different points of DCT-2 transform kernels, and the grouped DST-7 matrix is used to derive different points of DST-7 and DCT-8 transform kernels. The new technique of grouping concept is introduced, which shows the relationship between different rows of DST-7 transform kernels with various block sizes. The proposed grouping concept supports the fast algorithm of DST-7 by implementing the proposed method of the “one group one feature” principle. The simulation was conducted using the VTM-3.0 reference software under common test conditions. The simulation result of the all intra (AI) configuration is Y = 0.00%, U = −0.02%, V = 0.00% with an encoding time of 100%, and a decoding time of 100%. Similarly, the simulation results of random access (RA) configuration are Y = −0.01%, U = 0.09%, V = 0.06%, and the encoding and decoding times are 101% and 100%, respectively. The simulation result of the low delay B (LDB) configuration is Y = 0.01%, U = 0.08%, and V = −0.27%, for encoding and decoding times of 101% and 100%, respectively.

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Assessing the effect of lithological setting, block characteristics and slope topography on the runout length of rockfalls in the Alps and on the island of La Réunion

Natural Hazards and Earth System Science ◽

10.5194/nhess-21-1159-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 1159-1177

Author(s):

Kerstin Wegner ◽

Florian Haas ◽

Tobias Heckmann ◽

Anne Mangeney ◽

Virginie Durand ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Size Distribution ◽

Block Size ◽

Terrain Parameters ◽

The Alps ◽

Good Proxy ◽

Study Sites ◽

The One ◽

Block Sizes ◽

Block Size Distribution

Abstract. In four study areas within different lithological settings and rockfall activity, lidar data were applied for a morphometric analysis of block sizes, block shapes and talus cone characteristics. This information was used to investigate the dependencies between block size, block shape and lithology on the one hand and runout distances on the other hand. In our study, we were able to show that lithology seems to have an influence on block size and shape and that gravitational sorting did not occur on all of the studied debris cones but that other parameters apparently control the runout length of boulders. Such a parameter seems to be the block shape, as it plays the role of a moderating parameter in two of the four study sites, while we could not confirm this for our other study sites. We also investigated the influence of terrain parameters such as slope inclination, profile curvature and roughness. The derived roughness values show a clear difference between the four study sites and seem to be a good proxy for block size distribution on the talus cones and thus could be used in further studies to analyse a larger sample of block size distribution on talus cones with different lithologies.

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Misreading Egypt

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424776.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jesse Schotter

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Narrative Form ◽

Experimental Film ◽

Tower Of Babel ◽

Avant Garde ◽

Sergei Eisenstein ◽

History Of ◽

The One ◽

The Relationship ◽

Modern Technologies

The first chapter of Hieroglyphic Modernisms exposes the complex history of Western misconceptions of Egyptian writing from antiquity to the present. Hieroglyphs bridge the gap between modern technologies and the ancient past, looking forward to the rise of new media and backward to the dispersal of languages in the mythical moment of the Tower of Babel. The contradictory ways in which hieroglyphs were interpreted in the West come to shape the differing ways that modernist writers and filmmakers understood the relationship between writing, film, and other new media. On the one hand, poets like Ezra Pound and film theorists like Vachel Lindsay and Sergei Eisenstein use the visual languages of China and of Egypt as a more primal or direct alternative to written words. But Freud, Proust, and the later Eisenstein conversely emphasize the phonetic qualities of Egyptian writing, its similarity to alphabetical scripts. The chapter concludes by arguing that even avant-garde invocations of hieroglyphics depend on narrative form through an examination of Hollis Frampton’s experimental film Zorns Lemma.

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Researching (with) Major Food Retailers

Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture ◽

10.1525/gfc.2015.15.3.33 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 33-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

David Evans

Keyword(s):

Food Systems ◽

Academic Research ◽

Social Scientists ◽

Major Food ◽

Food Retailers ◽

Food Retailer ◽

The One ◽

The Uk ◽

The Relationship ◽

Opening Up

This paper considers the relationship between social science and the food industry, and it suggests that collaboration can be intellectually productive and morally rewarding. It explores the middle ground that exists between paid consultancy models of collaboration on the one hand and a principled stance of nonengagement on the other. Drawing on recent experiences of researching with a major food retailer in the UK, I discuss the ways in which collaborating with retailers can open up opportunities for accessing data that might not otherwise be available to social scientists. Additionally, I put forward the argument that researchers with an interest in the sustainability—ecological or otherwise—of food systems, especially those of a critical persuasion, ought to be empirically engaging with food businesses. I suggest that this is important in terms of generating better understandings of the objectionable arrangements that they seek to critique, and in terms of opening up conduits through which to affect positive changes. Cutting across these points is the claim that while resistance to commercial engagement might be misguided, it is nevertheless important to acknowledge the power-geometries of collaboration and to find ways of leveling and/or leveraging them. To conclude, I suggest that universities have an important institutional role to play in defining the terms of engagement as well as maintaining the boundaries between scholarship and consultancy—a line that can otherwise become quite fuzzy when the worlds of commerce and academic research collide.

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Choice Of Technique And The Volume Of Saving (A Re-Examination Of The Cobb-Douglas Model)

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v8i4pp.606-617 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 606-617

Author(s):

Mohammad Anisur Rahman

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Production Function ◽

Development Policy ◽

Social Goals ◽

The Other ◽

Economic Development Policy ◽

Labour Intensity ◽

The One ◽

Choice Of Technique ◽

The Relationship

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the relationship between the degree of aggregate labour-intensity and the aggregate volume of saving in an economy where a Cobb-6ouglas production function in its traditional form can be assumed to give a good approximation to reality. The relationship in ques¬tion has an obviously important bearing on economic development policy in the area of choice of labour intensity. To the extent that and in the range where an increase in labour intensity would adversely affect the volume of savings, a con¬flict arises between two important social objectives, i.e., higher rate of capital formation on the one hand and greater employment and distributive equity on the other. If relative resource endowments in the economy are such that such a "competitive" range of labour-intensity falls within the nation's attainable range of choice, development planners will have to arrive at a compromise between these two social goals.

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Bastard Feudalism and the Framing of Thirteenth-Century England

10.1093/oso/9780198777601.003.0011 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Coss

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Thirteenth Century ◽

Twelfth Century ◽

The State ◽

The Other ◽

Great Work ◽

Early Middle Ages ◽

The One ◽

The Relationship

In the introduction to his great work of 2005, Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham urged not only the necessity of carefully framing our studies at the outset but also the importance of closely defining the words and concepts that we employ, the avoidance ‘cultural sollipsism’ wherever possible and the need to pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities. Chris has, of course, followed these precepts on a vast scale. My aim in this chapter is a modest one. I aim to review the framing of thirteenth-century England in terms of two only of Chris’s themes: the aristocracy and the state—and even then primarily in terms of the relationship between the two. By the thirteenth century I mean a long thirteenth century stretching from the period of the Angevin reforms of the later twelfth century on the one hand to the early to mid-fourteenth on the other; the reasons for taking this span will, I hope, become clearer during the course of the chapter, but few would doubt that it has a validity.

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A New Paradigm in the Relationship between Melatonin and Breast Cancer: Gut Microbiota Identified as a Potential Regulatory Agent

Cancers ◽

10.3390/cancers13133141 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 3141

Author(s):

Aurora Laborda-Illanes ◽

Lidia Sánchez-Alcoholado ◽

Soukaina Boutriq ◽

Isaac Plaza-Andrades ◽

Jesús Peralta-Linero ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Gut Microbiota ◽

Bacterial Population ◽

Kynurenine Pathway ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Bacterial Composition ◽

Glucuronidase Activity ◽

The One ◽

The Relationship ◽

Melatonin Production

In this review we summarize a possible connection between gut microbiota, melatonin production, and breast cancer. An imbalance in gut bacterial population composition (dysbiosis), or changes in the production of melatonin (circadian disruption) alters estrogen levels. On the one hand, this may be due to the bacterial composition of estrobolome, since bacteria with β-glucuronidase activity favour estrogens in a deconjugated state, which may ultimately lead to pathologies, including breast cancer. On the other hand, it has been shown that these changes in intestinal microbiota stimulate the kynurenine pathway, moving tryptophan away from the melatonergic pathway, thereby reducing circulating melatonin levels. Due to the fact that melatonin has antiestrogenic properties, it affects active and inactive estrogen levels. These changes increase the risk of developing breast cancer. Additionally, melatonin stimulates the differentiation of preadipocytes into adipocytes, which have low estrogen levels due to the fact that adipocytes do not express aromatase. Consequently, melatonin also reduces the risk of breast cancer. However, more studies are needed to determine the relationship between microbiota, melatonin, and breast cancer, in addition to clinical trials to confirm the sensitizing effects of melatonin to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and its ability to ameliorate or prevent the side effects of these therapies.

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Energy-Constrained Design of Joint NOMA-Diversity Schemes with Imperfect Interference Cancellation

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21124194 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (12) ◽

pp. 4194

Author(s):

Fulvio Babich ◽

Giulia Buttazzoni ◽

Francesca Vatta ◽

Massimiliano Comisso

Keyword(s):

Interference Cancellation ◽

Energy Levels ◽

Random Access ◽

Actual Performance ◽

Available Energy ◽

Fifth Generation ◽

Code Modulation ◽

Energy Constrained ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Internet Of Things

This study proposes a set of novel random access protocols combining Packet Repetition (PR) schemes, such as Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA) and Irregular Repetition SA (IRSA), with Non Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA). Differently from previous NOMA/CRDSA and NOMA/IRSA proposals, this work analytically derives the energy levels considering two realistic elements: the residual interference due to imperfect Interference Cancellation (IC), and the presence of requirements on the power spent for the transmission. More precisely, the energy-limited scenario is based on the relationship between the average available energy and the selected code modulation pair, thus being of specific interest for the implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in forthcoming fifth-generation (5G) systems. Moreover, a theoretical model based on the density evolution method is developed and numerically validated by extensive simulations to evaluate the limiting throughput and to explore the actual performance of different NOMA/PR schemes in energy-constrained scenarios.

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Pensare Dio. Spunti di riflessione in dialogo con Anca Vasiliu

Elenchos ◽

10.1515/elen-2020-0009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 181-194

Author(s):

Angela Longo

Keyword(s):

Late Antiquity ◽

Human Being ◽

Common Thread ◽

Critical Issues ◽

Relevant Topic ◽

The Common ◽

The One ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Trinity

AbstractThe following work features elements to ponder and an in-depth explanation taken on the Anca Vasiliu’s study about the possibilities and ways of thinking of God by a rational entity, such as the human being. This is an ever relevant topic that, however, takes place in relation to Platonic authors and texts, especially in Late Antiquity. The common thread is that the human being is a God’s creature who resembles him and who is image of. Nevertheless, this also applies within the Christian Trinity according to which, not without problems, the Son is the image of the Father. Lastly, also the relationship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son, always within the Trinity, can be considered as a relationship of similarity, but again not without critical issues between the similarity of attributes, on the one hand, and the identity of nature, on the other.

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Evangelical and Catholic Timespace in Work: An Argument against a Homeless Eschatology

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel12030199 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 199

Author(s):

Maria Ledstam

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Common Good ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

The Other ◽

Faith Based ◽

Business As Mission ◽

Achievable Goal ◽

The Common ◽

The One ◽

The Relationship

This article engages with how religion and economy relate to each other in faith-based businesses. It also elaborates on a recurrent idea in theological literature that reflections on different visions of time can advance theological analyses of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. More specifically, this article brings results from an ethnographic study of two faith-based businesses into conversation with the ethicist Luke Bretherton’s presentation of different understandings of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. Using Theodore Schatzki’s theory of timespace, the article examines how time and space are constituted in two small faith-based businesses that are part of the two networks Business as Mission (evangelical) and Economy of Communion (catholic) and how the different timespaces affect the religious-economic configurations in the two cases and with what moral implications. The overall findings suggest that the timespace in the Catholic business was characterized by struggling caused by a tension between certain ideals on how religion and economy should relate to each other on the one hand and how the practice evolved on the other hand. Furthermore, the timespace in the evangelical business was characterized by confidence, caused by the business having a rather distinct and achievable goal when it came to how they wanted to be different and how religion should relate to economy. There are, however, nuances and important resemblances between the cases that cannot be explained by the businesses’ confessional and theological affiliations. Rather, there seems to be something about the phenomenon of tension-filled and confident faith-based businesses that causes a drive in the practices towards the common good. After mapping the results of the empirical study, I discuss some contributions that I argue this study brings to Bretherton’s presentation of the relationship between Christianity and capitalism.

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Insurance related problems in bareboat charter agreements

Journal of Shipping and Trade ◽

10.1186/s41072-021-00093-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Albano Gilabert Gascón

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Supreme Court ◽

Third Parties ◽

Insurance Contract ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Supreme Court ◽

The One ◽

The Baltic ◽

The Relationship

AbstractIn 2017, the majority of the United Kingdom Supreme Court held in its judgment in the Gard Marine and Energy v China National Chartering (The Ocean Victory) case that, in bareboat charters under the ‘BARECON 89’ form, if both the owner and the charterer are jointly insured under a hull policy, the damages caused to the vessel by the charterer cannot be claimed by the insurer by way of subrogation after indemnifying the owner. The interpretation of the charter party leads to the conclusion that the liability between the parties is excluded. Faced with the Supreme Court’s decision, the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) adopted a new standard bareboat charter agreement only a few months later, the ‘BARECON 2017’ form, which amends, among other clauses, the one related to insurance. The present paper analyses (i) the new wording of the clause mentioned above and (ii) its incidence on the relationship between the parties of both the charter agreement and the insurance contract and its consequences for possible third parties. Despite BIMCO’s attempt to change the solution adopted by the Supreme Court and his willingness to allow the insurer to claim in subrogation against the person who causes the loss, the consequences, as it will be seen, do not differ much in practice when the wrongdoer is the co-insured charterer. On the contrary, when the loss is caused by a time charter or a sub-charter, in principle, there will be no impediment for the insurer to sue him.

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