Motion Estimation in HEVC/H.265: Metaheuristic Approach to Improve the Efficiency

An ever increasing use of digital video applications such as video telephony, broadcast and the storage of high and ultra-high definition videos has steered the development of video coding standards. The state of the art video coding standard is High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) or otherwise known as H.265. It promises to be 50 percent more efficient than the previous video coding standard H.264. Ultimately, H.265 provides significant improvement in compression at the expense of computational complexity. HEVC encoder is very complex and 50 percent of the encoding consists of Motion Estimation (ME). It uses a Test Zone (TZ) fast search algorithm for its motion estimation, which compares a block of pixels with a few selected blocks in the search region of a referenced frame. However, the encoding time is not suitable to meet the needs of real time video applications. So, there is a requirement to improve the search algorithm and to provide comparable results to TZ search to save a substantial amount of time. In our paper, we aim to study the effects of a meta-heuristic algorithm on motion estimation. One such suitable algorithm for this task is the Firefly Algorithm (FA). FA is inspired by the social behavior of fireflies and is generally used to solve optimization problems. Our results show that implementing FA for ME saves a considerable amount of time with a comparable encoding efficiency.

Characterization of Wearable and Implanted Antennas: Test Procedure and Range Design

A method for measuring de-embedded antenna parameters of wearable and implanted antennas for on-body communications is presented. It consists of a tapered flat phantom in order to characterize an antenna’s general ability to excite surface waves travelling along the boundary between body tissue and free space expressed by an angular on-body antenna gain. The design offers a test zone large enough for most typical Wireless Body Area Network devices up to smartphone-size while minimizing the required amount of tissue-simulating material. The designed antenna test range is validated in the 2.4 GHz ISM-band. In order to showcase the applicability to a realistic application, different designs of antennas integrated into an implanted pacemaker are characterized by their on-body gain patterns. A comparison of their performance in in-situ path-loss measurements reveals a clear relation to the on-body gain patterns and indicates that this parameter is a suitable measure for enabling educated antenna design for on-body applications.<br>

Paper-Based Multiplexed Colorimetric Device for the Simultaneous Detection of Salivary Biomarkers

In this study, we describe a monolithic and fully integrated paper-based device for the simultaneous detection of three prognostic biomarkers in saliva. The pattern of the proposed multiplexed device is designed with a central sample deposition zone and three identical arms, each containing a pre-treatment and test zone. Its one-step fabrication is realized by CO2 laser cutting, providing remarkable parallelization and rapidity (ca. 5 s/device). The colorimetric detection is based on the sensitive and selective target-induced reshaping of plasmonic multibranched gold nanoparticles, which exhibit a clear spectral shift (and blue-to-pink color change) in case of non-physiological concentrations of the three salivary biomarkers. A rapid and multiplexed naked-eye or smartphone-based readout of the colorimetric response is achieved within 10 min. A prototype kit for POCT testing is also reported, providing robustness and easy handling of the device.

Characterization of Wearable and Implanted Antennas: Test Procedure and Range Design

A method for measuring de-embedded antenna parameters of wearable and implanted antennas for on-body communications is presented. It consists of a tapered flat phantom in order to characterize an antenna’s general ability to excite surface waves travelling along the boundary between body tissue and free space expressed by an angular on-body antenna gain. The design offers a test zone large enough for most typical Wireless Body Area Network devices up to smartphone-size while minimizing the required amount of tissue-simulating material. The designed antenna test range is validated in the 2.4 GHz ISM-band. In order to showcase the applicability to a realistic application, different designs of antennas integrated into an implanted pacemaker are characterized by their on-body gain patterns. A comparison of their performance in in-situ path-loss measurements reveals a clear relation to the on-body gain patterns and indicates that this parameter is a suitable measure for enabling educated antenna design for on-body applications.<br>

Characterization of Wearable and Implanted Antennas: Test Procedure and Range Design

A method for measuring de-embedded antenna parameters of wearable and implanted antennas for on-body communications is presented. It consists of a tapered flat phantom in order to characterize an antenna’s general ability to excite surface waves travelling along the boundary between body tissue and free space expressed by an angular on-body antenna gain. The design offers a test zone large enough for most typical Wireless Body Area Network devices up to smartphone-size while minimizing the required amount of tissue-simulating material. The designed antenna test range is validated in the 2.4 GHz ISM-band. In order to showcase the applicability to a realistic application, different designs of antennas integrated into an implanted pacemaker are characterized by their on-body gain patterns. A comparison of their performance in in-situ path-loss measurements reveals a clear relation to the on-body gain patterns and indicates that this parameter is a suitable measure for enabling educated antenna design for on-body applications.<br>

How to Evaluate Downed Fine Woody Debris Including Logging Residues?

Volume or biomass estimates of downed woody debris are crucial for numerous applications such as forest carbon stock assessment, biodiversity assessments, and more recently for environmental evaluations of biofuel harvesting practices. Both fixed-area sampling (FAS) and line-intersect sampling (LIS) are used in forest inventories and ecological studies because they are unbiased and accurate methods. Nevertheless, most studies and inventories take into account only coarse woody debris (CWD, >10 cm in diameter), although fine woody debris (FWD) can account for a large part of the total downed biomass. We compared the LIS and FAS methods for FWD volume or biomass estimates and evaluated the influence of diameter and wood density measurements, plot number and size. We used a Test Zone (a defined surface area where a complete inventory was carried out, in addition to FAS and LIS), a Pilot Stand (a forest stand where both LIS and FAS methods were applied) and results from 10 field inventories in deciduous temperate forest stands with various conditions and amounts of FWD. Both methods, FAS and LIS, provided accurate (in trueness and precision) volume estimates, but LIS proved to be the more efficient. Diameter measurement was the main source of error: using the mean diameter, even by diameter class, led to an error for volume estimates of around 35%. On the contrary, wood density measurements can be simplified without much influence on the accuracy of biomass estimates (use of mean density by diameter class). We show that the length and number of transects greatly influences the estimates, and that it is better to apply more, shorter transects than fewer, longer ones. Finally, we determined the optimal methodology and propose a simplification of some measurements to obtain the best time-precision trade-off for FWD inventories at the stand level.

Optimization of Segmented Wave-Maker Control to Generate Spatially Uniform Regular Waves in a Rounded-Rectangular Wave Basin

A wave field in a wave basin inevitably has spatial variation due to the wave’s cylindrical propagation property. Therefore, we aimed to develop an optimization method for the control of wave-makers to produce a spatially uniform wave field in a specified test zone inside a wave basin with an arbitrary arrangement of wave-makers. The optimization is based on the simulated annealing algorithm, a method for finding a globally optimal solution, which was combined with a numerical wave basin based on linear wave-maker theory. A wave generation experiment was performed in the actual sea model basin (80 m long, 40 m wide, and 4.5 m deep) at the National Maritime Research Institute to validate the proposed optimization method. A case study was conducted with a long-crested regular-wave with a wave height of 10 cm, wavelength of 4.0 m, and wave direction of 180 degrees, which corresponds to the longitudinal direction of the wave basin. A 40-m × 14-m test zone was set in the middle of the wave basin. The experimental results with and without the proposed optimization were compared, which confirmed that the spatial uniformity of the wave field was improved, and the coefficient of variation for the wave height in the test zone decreased from 0.127 to 0.029.

A Rapid Point of Care CC16 Kit for Screening of Occupational Silica Dust Exposed Workers for Early Detection of Silicosis/Silico-Tuberculosis

Silicosis is an irreversible, incurable and progressive occupational disease caused by prolonged exposure to crystalline-silica while working in related industries. Conventionally diagnosis is done by chest radiology in advanced stage as early symptoms often go unnoticed. Early detection and secondary prevention could be the only realistic possible control strategy for controlling silicosis as no other method of treatment is available. Additionally, these patients are also vulnerable to drug resistant tuberculosis. Developing countries like India has a huge burden of silico-tuberculosis. Hence, a rapid and inexpensive screening method is a need for early detection of silicosis among silica dust exposed workers. Serum CC16 is a useful proxy screening marker for early detection of silicosis. In this study a lateral-flow assay for semi-quantitative estimation of serum CC16 level was developed. The detection was performed using gold nanoparticles conjugated anti-CC16 monoclonal antibodies. A sum of 47 serum samples was tested to do performance evaluation of the assay. A concentration of 6ng/ml or less produced one band, 6.1 – 9 ng/ml produced two bands, while more than 9 ng/ml produced all the three bands at the test zone. This assay can be used as a proxy marker for periodic screening and early detection of silicosis in vulnerable workers.