66,836 research outputs found
A wireless multimedia system
No full textThe complexity, robustness, image and speech quality as well as packet multiplexing issues of a reconfigurable multi-media mobile communicator are addressed. The proposed moderate complexity motion-compensated Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) based image communicator provides an image peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 38 dB at an average bit rate of about 25 kbits/s. The speech codec used is a low-complexity 32 kbit/s CCITT G721 standard scheme. Bandwidth efficient 16 or 64level quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) combined with embedded low-complexity binary Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) forward error correction coding is deployed. The 20-slot packet reservation multiple access (PRMA) scheme used supports an extra 2.4 kbit/s low-rate data channel for each speech user, in addition to providing 5-6 video-phone channels. The ADPCM/DCT/BCH/16-QAM as well as 64QAM schemes provide nearly unimpaired speech and image quality for channel SNRs in excess of 30 dB and 38 dB, respectively
Education reform as an agent of change: the development of media literacy in Hong Kong during the last decade
Full text linkAlthough media education is a comparatively new area of studies in Hong Kong, it is already flourishing. Why? This contribution identifies the education reform as an important factor in encouraging the development of media education in the last decade, and the three major driving forces of this reform have been: the emphasis on civic education since Hong Kong’s return to China sovereignty, the introduction of information technology (ICT), and the recent review of the curriculum. The author also aims to find out whether the patterns used in media education development are their own Asian models or, on the contrary, they follow Wes tern patterns
Measurement of the top-quark mass in all-jets events in pp collisions at = 7 TeV
Full text linkThe mass of the top quark is measured using a sample of candidate events with at least six jets in the final state. The sample is selected from data collected with the CMS detector in pp collisions at = 7 TeV in 2011 and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.54 . The mass is reconstructed for each event employing a kinematic fit of the jets to a hypothesis. The top-quark mass is measured to be 173.49 0.69(stat.) 1.21(syst.) GeV. A combination with previously published measurements in other decay modes by CMS yields a mass of 173.54 0.33(stat.) 0.96(syst.) GeV
Acoustic radiation due to scattering of T-S wave by the mean-flow distortion induced by steady local suction
No full textSubstantial sound waves can be generated by boundary-layer instability modes when the latter are scattered by a rapid mean-flow distortion. This is a rather generic mechanism and operates when an oncoming T-S wave is scattered by a steady local suction slot. This paper focuses on this problem by extending a recently developed Local Scattering Theory (Wu & Dong, J. Fluid Mech. submitted), where a so-called transmission coefficient, defined as the ratio of the T-S wave amplitude downstream of the scatter to that upstream, is introduced to characterize the effect of a local scatter on boundary-layer instability and transition. As in the earlier work, the mathematical formulation is based on triple-deck formulism, but in order to accommodate the acoustic far field, which was not considered in the paper mentioned, the unsteady terms in the upper deck, which play a leading-order role in radiation, are retained, and the influence of the radiated sound on the near-wall perturbation is included. The upper deck equation for the pressure is the Helmholtz equation rather than the Laplace equation. This leads to a modified pressure-displacement relation, which is coupled with the linearized boundary-layer equations in the lower deck. Discretization of the whole system formulates a generalized eigenvalue problem, which is solved numerically. It is found that suction suppresses oncoming T-S waves, and this effect increases with the suction velocity and the slot width. The directivity is ndependent of the flow parameters only when the Mach number is low. The intensity of the radiated sound in general increases with the frequency, the suction velocity and the width of the suction slot. Interestingly, for O(1) suction velocities, the radiated sound is very weak, indicating that the gain of stabilizing effect does not cause aeroacoustic penalty
An efficient protocol for private iris-code matching by means of garbled circuits
No full textBiometric-based access control is receiving increasing attention due to its security and ease-of-use. However, concerns are often raised regarding the protection of the privacy of enrolled users. Signal processing in the encrypted domain has been proposed as a viable solution to protect biometric templates and the privacy of the users. In particular, several solutions have been proposed to protect the privacy of the biometric probe during the authentication process. In this paper we focus on privacy-preserving iris-based authentication. The main innovations compared to the prior art include: i) an iris masking technique that simplifies the operations on the encrypted data without sacrificing the recognition rate; ii) the adoption of a matching protocol based only on garbled circuits which offers longer term security over existing solutions based on homomorphic encryption or hybrid techniques. The computational and communication complexity of the on-line phase of the proposed protocol is extremely low, thus opening the way to its exploitation in practical applications
Measuring industry-science links through inventor-author relations: A profiling method
Full text linkIn this pilot study we examine the performance of text-based profiling in recovering a set of validated inventor-author links. In a first step we match patents and publications solely based on their similarity in content. Next, we compare inventor and author names on the highest ranked matches for the occurrence of name matches. Finally, we compare these candidate matches with the names listed in a validated set of inventor-author names. Our text-based profile methodology performs significantly better than a random matching of patents and publications, suggesting that text-based profiling is a valuable complementary tool to the name searches used in previous studies.innovation; industry-science links; text-based profiling;
The maternal immune system during pregnancy and its influence on fetal development
No full textThe maternal immune system plays a critical role in the establishment, maintenance, and completion of a healthy pregnancy. However, the specific mechanisms utilized to achieve these goals are not well understood. Various cells and molecules of the immune system are key players in the development and function of the placenta and the fetus. Effector cells of the immune system act to promote and yet limit placental development. The T helper 1 (Th1)/T helper 2 (Th2) immune shift during pregnancy is well established. A fine balance between proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory influences is required. We herein review the evidence regarding maternal tolerance of fetal tissues and the underlying cell-mediated immune and humoral (hormones and cytokines) mechanisms. We also note the many unanswered questions in our understanding of these mechanisms. In addition, we summarize the clinical manifestations of an altered maternal immune system during pregnancy related to susceptibility to common viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections, as well as to autoimmune diseases.Peer reviewe
S-heterocyclic carbene with a disilane backbone
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Heterogeneous and tissue-specific regulation of effector T cell responses by IFN-gamma during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection.
Full text linkIFN-γ and T cells are both required for the development of experimental cerebral malaria during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection. Surprisingly, however, the role of IFN-γ in shaping the effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell response during this infection has not been examined in detail. To address this, we have compared the effector T cell responses in wild-type and IFN-γ(-/-) mice during P. berghei ANKA infection. The expansion of splenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells during P. berghei ANKA infection was unaffected by the absence of IFN-γ, but the contraction phase of the T cell response was significantly attenuated. Splenic T cell activation and effector function were essentially normal in IFN-γ(-/-) mice; however, the migration to, and accumulation of, effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in the lung, liver, and brain was altered in IFN-γ(-/-) mice. Interestingly, activation and accumulation of T cells in various nonlymphoid organs was differently affected by lack of IFN-γ, suggesting that IFN-γ influences T cell effector function to varying levels in different anatomical locations. Importantly, control of splenic T cell numbers during P. berghei ANKA infection depended on active IFN-γ-dependent environmental signals--leading to T cell apoptosis--rather than upon intrinsic alterations in T cell programming. To our knowledge, this is the first study to fully investigate the role of IFN-γ in modulating T cell function during P. berghei ANKA infection and reveals that IFN-γ is required for efficient contraction of the pool of activated T cells
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