Frequent Scene Research Articles

The reflection of Netflix's Drama on cultural and social values in Arab World

The study aimed to identify the most cultural and social values ​​that the Netflix platform adopts within its original dramas, and to explore the reflection of the promotion of these values on viewers. A pilot study was conducted on a sample of Netflix original drama series to find out the most popular cultural and social values for the period from (01-01-2020 to 01-06-2021). The pilot study concluded that homosexual acts were among the most imposed and promoted on viewers as a cultural and moral value within the Netflix dramas. Accordingly, the content of those dramatic scenes was analyzed, then the frequencies and proportions of the themes and dramatic contexts promoting homosexuality were calculated.
 This study utilize the mixed method, as it began with a qualitative analysis to reach the themes covered by the original Netflix dramas, followed by a quantitative analysis to identify the volume of topics and the negative and positive contexts of homosexual scenes. The results of the study concluded that the Netflix platform presented its homosexuality dramas in a scientific method. Moreover, Netflix has used seven media frameworks that are consistent with the frame analysis theory. It also showed its focus on addressing five main themes, which are: homosexual contexts, homosexual behavior, homosexual rights, motivations, and characteristics. It has 13 categories, composed of 119 Codes.
 The theme of homosexual contexts classified as highest percentage by (35.46%), followed by the theme of homosexual behaviors by (29.77%), While the theme of characteristics occupies the bottom of the list by (%3.15).
 Data showed that all original Netflix series topped the list of most popular and watched for the year 2020-2021It's got homosexuality scenes. that the total time of homosexuality scenes appearance was about 312.83 minutes, for 424 scenes. This confirms that there is at least one homosexuality scene every 42 minutes, and homosexuality intercourse scene were in every 15 episodes. homosexuality verbal terms are the most frequently used by %57.54. homosexuality action was the second frequent scene by %14.15.
 The data also showed an increase in the size of direct homosexuality contexts by (81.94%), compared to the size of the indirect homosexuality contexts, which was %18.06.Despite this, indirect contexts were also employed in a way that works to achieve moral sympathy for the viewer towards homosexuals, by showing the suffering that homosexuals face from the society around them. The study recommends the importance of conducting more qualitative and quantitative studies to identify the impact of homosexual scenes promoted through digital video platforms on the viewer’s perception, the extent of their mental acceptance, and the need for the competent bodies to protect intellectual security to educate the lllviewer about the seriousness of what these platforms offer, activate their supervisory role and block scenes that contradict with Islamic and cultural values.

A Novel Rate Control Scheme for Video Coding in HEVC-SCC

The particular characteristics of contents generated by computers and the frequent scene change in screen content videos make the exiting R- $\lambda $ model in the rate control be not suitable to encode screen content videos. A novel rate control scheme designed for screen content videos coding (SCC) is proposed in this paper. Text blocks, screen image blocks and nature image blocks in screen content videos can result in different bitrate-distortion (R-D) relationships. A content-based rate control method is put forward at Coding Tree Unit (CTU) level for this reason. Three independent parameter update modes are adopted for three different types of CTUs according to their corresponding R-D relationship. Furthermore, frequent scene change in screen content videos needs a novel bit allocation scheme for precise rate control. In view of this, the frames in the screen content videos are classified into scene changed frames and scene unchanged frames. Different bit allocation methods are adopted for different types of frames on the basis of inter frame and intra frame complexity. Besides, a region level bit allocation algorithm considering the inter frame continuity and the numbers of different types of CTUs is added between frame level and CTU level bit allocation schemes. Experimental results show that our proposed rate control algorithm respectively achieves 0.88 dB BDPSNR and 1.54 dB BDPSNR increase under the Low Delay coding structure on average, compared with the default rate control algorithm with hierarchical and non-hierarchical bit allocation in the HEVC-SCC.

Health correlates, addictive behaviors, and peer victimization among adolescents in China

Peer victimization has been recognized as a common social problem affecting children and adolescents in all parts of the world. This study aims to examine the prevalence of different types of peer victimization and to evaluate the associations between peer victimization and health correlates. Using a large population sample of 18,341 adolescents aged 15-17 years from 6 cities in China, this study estimated the prevalence of different types of peer victimization, addictive behaviors, and health-related variables with self-administrated questionnaires. A three-phase logistical regression analysis was conducted to investigate the associations between peer victimization and addictive behaviors as well as health-related factors among adolescents. A total of 42.9% of the surveyed Chinese adolescents have been bullied by peers, with boys reporting higher rate on overt victimization (36.9%) and girls on relational forms (33.9%). School environment (34.7%) was the most frequent scene of peer violence, followed by neighborhood, family, and internet. Addictive behaviors except substance abuse were found related to higher possibility of peer victimization (aOR 1.21-1.73, P < 0.001). Peer victimization was significantly associated with more depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, and suicide ideation and deliberate self-harm (aOR 1.05-2.27, P < 0.001), and poorer self-esteem and health-related quality of life (aOR 0.95-0.97, P < 0.001). Possible explanations of the associations found in this study are discussed and implications for future services are raised.

An effective temporal error concealment in H.264 video sequences based on scene change detection-PCA model

This paper proposes a new temporal error concealment algorithm in H.264 video sequences based on scene change detection and PCA model. In order to detect scene change, dynamic threshold and image similarity metric are presented using coding prediction mode and DCT AC energy in H.264 baseline. UPCA (Updated PCA) model is presented by combining the scene change feature with Index transformation-Buffer updating approach. The lost images are concealed by Projection onto Convex Sets algorithm with UPCA model. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve better error concealment performance for the higher motion and the frequent scene change, compared with the related method.

The Distribution of Book of the Dead Spells’ in Ptolemaic Tombs in Egypt

Tomb was the posthumous residence of the deceased. Thus Ancient Egyptians high priority great attention to construct an elaborate tomb equipped with all necessities of eternal existence as the iconography of walls and ceiling. The religious theme was the principal sources of tombs’ decorative programs in Ptolemaic Period in Egypt. These scenes revealed many subjects as presenting offerings to gods, but the most frequent scene’s subject is that of funerary texts, especially the vignette and texts of Book of the Dead. This paper aims to investigate the spatial distribution of Book of the Dead’s scenes on different parts of the tomb and its significance. It will survey all scenes according to their spell number and every spell will be analysed according to place, title, vignette’s description and finally its function; the latter highlight its choice. Results could provide some indications about the function of every part of the tomb. Key words : Tombs, Ptolemaic Period, Egypt, Book of the Dead, Funerary beliefs.

Two-Pass Rate Control for Improved Quality of Experience in UHDTV Delivery

Rate control plays an important role in any video coding application and it was extensively studied in the context of previous video coding standards. However, the current state-of the-art high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard introduces many flexible tools making previous rate-distortion models used in rate control insufficiently accurate. Recently, a few rate control methods have been developed for HEVC that introduce many useful features, such as a robust correspondence between the rate and Lagrange multiplier λ. Nonetheless, previous rate control algorithms for HEVC do not address typical content in television applications that consists of frequent scene changes. Furthermore, the new ultra high definition television (UHDTV) format, which is expected to become widespread in the future, demands for even higher compression efficiency. To overcome these issues, a two-pass rate control method is proposed in this paper, targeting the encoding of UHDTV content. In the first pass, a fast encoder with limited set of coding tools is used during pre-encoding step to obtain the data used for rate allocation and model parameter initialization, which will then be used during the second pass. To avoid multiple encoding steps when deriving this information, a variable quantization parameter framework is proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed rate control method outperforms the well-known HEVC rate control method. When compared with variable bit-rate encoding mode, the proposed two-pass rate control method achieves on average 2.9% BD-rate losses. That is significantly better than the state-of-the-art HEVC rate control method, which achieves an average 8.8% BD-rate loss. The proposed method also provides a more consistent quality fluctuation with time, measured with standard deviation of frame PSNR values, required for high Quality of Experience.

The Horizontal and Vertical Screen to Switch the Display Based on the Android

In this paper we address the problem of how to achieve the Android frequent horizontal and vertical screen rotation. We propose a method that using graphics hardware 2D acceleration to improve system performance. In Android complex display system, the horizontal and vertical rotation of the screen is frequent scene. If software method is adopted , the system performance will be relatively low, while if the method of the GPUs 2D hardware acceleration is used to recalculate the rotation of the source region and the target coordinates, combined with the 2D hardware interface, the system performance can be dramatically improved. In this way, it is able to realize rotation and composition on every layer of the server-side. Our experiments show that the rotation speed measured with the method of 2D hardware is two times faster than what is measured with the software method under the same platform.

Le casque gréco-illyrien a représentations figuratives (VIe – Ve siècles av. J.-C.) de Găvojdia, dep. de Timiş / The Greek-Illyrian Helmet with human representations (VI-Vth centuries B. C.) from Găvojdia, Timiş county

We intend, in the fi rst part of the study, to publish the helmet with fi gurative representations of Greek-Illyrian type, discovered at Găvojdia and, in the second part, to analyse the scenes represented on that helmet in the context of the Balkans art. &lt; e helmet made of a sheet of bronze with silver appliqués and found by accident in the Timiș River is, by its fi gurative representations an exceptional piece; if the rider motive can be seen also on the helmets of Olympia and Trebenište, the scene of the wild boar being hunted by two pedestrians, situated over the visor, is not present on other helmets of this type found until now. &lt; is piece can be placed in the IIIA1 type of the Greek-Illyrian helmets, dating from the end of the 6th – beginning of the 5th centuries BC. &lt; e rider and the wild boar hunt, as well as other ferocious beasts, such as the lion, the bear or the stag, are frequent scenes in the elite’s art of Greece, &lt; racia or Illyria, represented in precious metals, pottery vessels or frescoes in the graves and temples. &lt; e helmet of Găvojdia, together with other Greek-Illyrian ones without fi gurative representations found in the south-western part of Romania, prove that the north-&lt; racian aristocracy was connected to the mentalities and the tastes of the elites in the south-eastern Europe.

Reading Red: The Troping of Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

Reading RedThe Troping of Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Beloved Florian Bast (bio) A staggering amount of research has been conducted on Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel Beloved. More than a decade ago Elizabeth Ann Beaulieu claimed that “a virtual industry of Beloved (and, by extension, Morrisonian) scholarship has evolved” (59). While the text’s thematic and formal range has elicited an exceptionally heterogeneous body of scholarship, most researchers—within their respective theoretical approaches—have focused or at least touched on the text’s portrayal of physical and emotional trauma and the characters’ struggles to survive it. Linda Koolish, for example, comments on the continuous “struggle for psychic wholeness” in Beloved “which requires access to painful memories” (169). Kristin Boudreau contends that the novel’s very opening lines “announc[e] the prominent place of pain in the lives of these ex-slaves” (447). Anne Koenen reads the character Beloved as the return of the repressed, “the ghost of slavery” (117), and Claudine Raynaud specifically analyzes Morrison’s approach to memory and likens it to “the work of mourning” (43). Roger Luckhurst, finally, affirms Beloved’s status as “a formative text in literary trauma studies” (The Trauma Question 90). An aspect which has been largely overlooked, particularly in this context, is the text’s use of color to portray the consequences of slavery. Certainly, some scholars have remarked on the importance of color in Beloved. Cheryl Hall, for example, identifies its use as part of a “sophisticated system of repeated motifs [which] is at work in Beloved” (93), yet does not elaborate on this particular aspect of the system. Indeed, Morrison herself has claimed that “[t]here is practically no color whatsoever in its pages, and when there is, it is so stark and remarked upon, it is virtually raw” (Morrison, “Unspeakable” 397). However, no attempt at establishing a coherent analysis of the use of even one color has of yet been made.1 In spite of Morrison’s statement to the contrary, even a cursory reading of the novel quickly affirms the amount of energy the text expends in portraying different colors. Beloved repeatedly evokes comprehensive palettes of color: the multicolored ribbons, clothes, and flowers that Sethe buys during the last weeks in which Beloved is in the house, the quilt with the two orange patches as well as the “quilt of merry colors” in which Paul D finds Sethe in the novel’s last scene (Morrison, Beloved 319),2 and the many different colors that Baby Suggs ponders in the last years before her death can serve as examples.3 Among this elaborate use of colors, it is the color red which is employed most conspicuously, and it is this color which is intricately connected to the novel’s portrayal of trauma.4 It appears in some of the central tropes of the novel, such as Paul D’s red heart, Stamp Paid’s red ribbon, and Beloved’s pink tombstone. Additionally, the novel contains a multitude of bloody images due to its frequent scenes of bodily harm.5 Generally, red [End Page 1069] serves as an amplifier: within Western culture, red is most commonly associated with danger, blood, fire, or romantic love, and thus it always marks some notion of intensity. However, in Morrison’s novel its use is more specific. Red is more than just a universal amplifier. Even given the highly diverse connotations associated with its respective occurrences, red is traceable to a single source: the evils of slavery.6 More precisely, the text negotiates issues of trauma using the color red. This study’s central argument is that red is a complex and potent trope in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: it constitutes a text in and of itself, as it is through the characters’ interaction with the color that the novel narrates their processing of trauma. Trauma Theory and Beloved Cathy Caruth, in her seminal study Unclaimed Experience, has defined trauma as an event which is not experienced but simply registered, as it overwhelms the person to whom it happens (4).7 Among the typical reactions to this phenomenon is a repetition compulsion, an urge to continually return to the traumatic event, which is...

Consistent Picture Quality Control Strategy for Dependent Video Coding

Typically, a video rate control algorithm minimizes the average distortion (denoted as MINAVE) at the cost of large temporal quality variation, especially for videos with high motion and frequent scene changes. To alleviate the negative effect on subjective video quality, another criterion that restricts a small amount of quality variation among adjacent frames is preferred for practical applications. As pointed out by [20], although some existing proposals can produce consistent quality videos, they often fail to fully utilize the available bits to minimize the global total distortion. In this paper, we would like to achieve the triple goal of consistent quality video, minimizing the total distortion, and meeting the bit budget strictly all at the same time on the interframe dependent coding structure. Two approaches are taken to accomplish this goal. In the first algorithm, a trellis-based framework is proposed. One of our contributions is to derive an equivalent condition between the distortion minimization problem and the budget minimization problem. Second, our trellis state (tree node) is defined in terms of distortion, which facilitates the consistent quality control. Third, by adjusting one key parameter in our algorithm, a solution in between the MINAVE and the constant quality criteria can be obtained. The second approach is to combine the Lagrange multipliers method together with the consistent quality control. The PSNR performance is degraded slightly but the computational complexity is significantly reduced.Simulation results show that both our approaches produce a much smaller PSNR variation at a slight average PSNR loss as compared to the MPEG JM rate control. When they are compared to the other consistent quality proposals, only the proposed algorithms can strictly meet the target bit budget requirement (no more, no less) and produce the largest average PSNR at a small PSNR variation.

Fuzzy rough sets hybrid scheme for motion and scene complexity adaptive deinterlacing

Current research activities in the field of deinterlacing include the selection of suitable deinterlacing methods and the estimation of the exact value of a missing line. This paper proposes a spatio-temporal domain fuzzy rough sets rule for selecting a deinterlacing method that is suitable for regions with high motion or frequent scene changes. The proposed algorithm consists of two parts. The first part is fuzzy rule-based edge-direction detection with an edge preserving part that utilizes fuzzy theory to find the most accurate edge direction and interpolates the missing pixels. Using the introduced gradients in the interpolation, the vertical resolution in the deinterlaced image is subjectively concealed. The second part of the proposed algorithm is a rough sets-assisted optimization which selects the most suitable of five different deinterlacing methods and successively builds approximations of the deinterlaced sequence. Moreover, this approach employs a size reduction of the database system, keeping only the information essential for the process. The proposed algorithm is intended not only to be fast, but also to reduce deinterlacing artifacts.

Amnesia global transitoria: una revisión. I. Aspectos clínicos

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a neuropsychological syndrome in which a sudden, temporary loss of the capacity of creating new memories and a retrograde amnesia of variable intensity occur, whereas consciousness, personal identity and attention are preserved. To review different clinical aspects about TGA. Accordingly, the following topics will be reviewed: definition and diagnosis criteria, types of amnesias which should be ruled out and their peculiarities and differences with TGA, epidemiological data such as incidence, age, sex, educational level of the patients and number of TGA episodes, most frequent scene where TGA appears, and most common triggering events. Additionally, classical proposals about its possible etiology (epilepsy, vascular disease and migraine) and other new theories (Leao's spreading depression or influence of stress) will be revised. Finally, different data about neuroimaging studies in patients with TGA will be reviewed. There are data and arguments in favour and against the hypotheses regarding etiology of TGA, but there is no current consensus on a theory which explains in a satisfactory way the nature of this kind of amnesia.

The Psychosocial Context of Trauma in Treating PTSD Patients

Ms. A was a tall, extremely thin, 42-year-old marriedwoman suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD) and a major depressive disorder. After an auto-mobile accident 4 years earlier, she had developed psy-chiatric symptoms for the first time in her life. Her hus-band was driving when a woman pulled out from a stopsign and struck their car on the driver’s side. Ms. A re-membered screaming, “It’s going to hit us!” and thinkingshe was dying at the moment of colli-sion. Although her seat belt was buck-led, she was thrown to the front andside of the car. The driver’s side of thecar was smashed; her husbandclimbed out of the car through therear door to let her out. She was soshaken she was unable to stand; hehelped her sit down on the curb. Shehad severe neck and some shoulderpain that subsided slowly over severalmonths. Neither her husband nor theother driver was seriously injured.Ms. A’s recurrent nightmares aboutthe accident compromised her sleep.She had frequent distressing recollec-tions of the accident that she struggledto shut out. She fearfully avoided being in a car if shewas not the driver. She also avoided television and themovies because the frequent scenes of violent death up-set her. Although always a hard and reliable worker, Ms.A could not now concentrate on her job in customer re-lations for a manufacturing company. Depressed andtearful much of the time, sh e developed severe anorexiaand lost a great deal of weight. She lost all sexual desireand went through her day dully and mechanically. Shesaid her husband had tried to be supportive, but he feltrejected so that tension had developed between them.Ms. A had grown increasingly hopeless over her failureto improve; she often thought she would be better offdead. She considered suicide a sin but thought shewould be driven to it if she could not find relief from heranhedonia, affective “deadness,” loss of pleasure in herdaily activities, including her relationship with her chil-dren—a son of 23 lived at home and an older marrieddaughter was expecting her first child—a total loss of ap-petite, and recurrent nightmares about the accident.Ms. A had been receiving psychiatric treatment for sev-eral years with a combination of psychotherapy and med-ication from a psychiatrist who had experience in treatingPTSD. At the time she was first seen in our program, hertreatment included an antidepressant to reduce her de-pression and a sedative to help her sleep and diminish thefrequency of her nightmares. A behavioral approach wasemployed to induce her to eat more. This combination ofmedications had helped her sleep a little better, and hernightmares were less frequent, but her other PTSD symp-toms were no better, her mood had not improved signifi-cantly, and her appetite had not returned.Ms. A was the fourth of six children raised by hermother and grandparents on her grandfather’s farm inthe South. Her mother had never married, and severaldifferent men appear to have fathered her children.She said her mother, who worked making fabric in acotton mill, was devoted to all her children but was de-valued by her fundamentalist family,which included two uncles who wereBaptist ministers. Ms. A was regu-larly reminded of her illegitimacyand taught to be grateful that thegrandfather permitted the family tolive in his home. She was particularlyhurt by her grandfather’s angry,contemptuous disapproval of hermother.When Ms. A was 14, her mother leftthe farm and brought the childrennorth. She told them to tell theneighbors that their father had died.Much happier after the move, hermother went to work as a nurse’saide, and Ms. A attended a local highschool. During this period, she met her husband-to-be, ahigh school shop teacher, who was 7 years older thanshe. They married right after her graduation, and she im-mediately became pregnant. Ruefully, she remarkedthat she wished she had known more about birth con-trol, but her mother, who had died a year before the ac-cident, was not someone you could talk to about suchthings. Ms. A described her husband as an “ideal man”with whom she was happy before the accident. She saidhe was protective of her, but he was not someone to dis-cuss problems or feelings with.

Attention and Brain Activity While Watching Television: Components of Viewer Engagement

Television commercials include elements designed to engage the viewer's attention. Manipulations of the commercial's visual structure that result in rapid pacing or frequent scene changes can be engaging because they require a frequent redirection of visual attention. Manipulations of semantic content through such techniques as the inclusion of humorous or anomalous elements can elicit cognitive engagement. Structural manipulations in videos are known to attenuate the alpha (8 to 13 Hz) rhythm of the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded over posterior cortical regions involved with visual processes. To examine whether other engaging elements also affect the alpha rhythm, EEG was recorded from 10 participants who viewed television commercials. Principal components analysis was used to decompose the alpha rhythm into underlying factors that varied in spatial topography over the head and in spectral composition. Across commercials, the power of a posterior-distributed alpha component was inversely correlated with the frequency of scene changes. In contrast, a frontal component in the lower frequency portion of the alpha band was attenuated during commercials that elicited high subjective interest, independent of scene change frequency. And, an upper-frequency frontal alpha component was attenuated during commercials for which the item being advertised had a high probability of being subsequently recalled, independent of other factors. These frontal patterns of alpha reactivity are consistent with other neuroimaging results concerning frontal lobe activation by executive processes and episodic memory encoding. With appropriate neurologically guided analysis, EEG signals can provide a unique means of monitoring both perceptual and higher order neurocognitive processes during television viewing.

An adaptive QoS control method in the multichannel communication of the MPEG video data streams

AbstractIn a system in which multiple video streams are simultaneously transmitted and restored over a network in real time, QoS control is usually performed individually and end‐to‐end. Thus, the quality of the restored video images varies according to the assigned bandwidth. This paper considers MPEG coding of video images and proposes a method of reducing the variation of image quality by integrated QoS control of video images when multiple video streams share a common channel. More precisely, a scaling method is used in which a bit‐stream scaling method is selected and applied. A band assignment method is also proposed in which image quality degradation is equalized among the streams, based on the property that piecewise‐linear approximation can be applied to the relation between the bit rate and the image quality. A band assignment switching method is proposed for use when the proposed method is applied to the video data streams with frequent scene changes. Quality degradation with an increasing number of streams is discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 86(10): 66–78, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.1177

Golden Silence: Calelhon's Voice

A little-known author who chose to write in Occitan, the traditional language of southern France, Calelhon (1892-1981) conducted an intriguing reflection on agency and memory. Blending gender and regional issues, in particular through the two motifs of spinning thread and boiling bones, her texts include frequent scenes in which women use silence as an effective strategy in order to maintain the social cohesion of their community. In fact, in Calelhon's texts, women transform oppressive silence into a creative tool that allows them to preserve their endangered language from extinction.

Analysis of human anti-rabies post exposure treatment in the great area of Sao Paulo, Brazil

The treatment of human beings with risk of exposure to rabies virus infection still presents some cases of undesirable post treatment reactions. The knowledge resulting from the regular analysis of the epidemiological features associated with these practices would minimize the occurrence of these troubles. The records of the treatment of 8,758 human anti-rabies cases performed in Osasco City, S. Paulo, Brazil between 1984 and 1994 with Fuenzalida & Palacios vaccine and/or anti-rabies serum produced in equines were analysed by Epi Info program. It was found that the higher risk of exposure was for male children of from five to nine years of age. The most frequent scene of aggression was the victim's own house. Dogs were responsible for most of the accidents (62.8%); the majority of dogs and cats involved had not been immunized against rabies (51.0% of dogs and 73.2% of cats). Most people aged nine or under were attacked in the head (36.6%), followed by the upper limbs (35.1%); above this age the part of the body most frequently hurt was the upper (45.8%) and lower limbs (43. 7%); 26.5% of patients had already been vaccinated against rabies at least once in their lifetime; 90.7% of them sought medical care within five days, anti-rabies treatment was prescribed for 41.9% of them. Post vaccinal reactions were observed in 0.25% of the patients 0.3% of which were of neurological; 80.1% of the dogs and 58.4% of the cats involved coere kept under observation. The months of March, July, August and September presented the highest aggression rates.

Adaptive wavelet predictor to improve bandwidth allocation efficiency of VBR video traffic

Dynamic bandwidth allocation using adaptive prediction can significantly improve the efficiency and QoS guarantees in transporting VBR video over ATM network. Conventionally, the time-domain least-mean-square (LMS) predictor is used, with the drawback of slow convergence. In VBR video traffic characterized by frequent scene changes, this slow convergence may result in extended periods of intractability and excessive cell loss during scene changes. In this article, we propose an adaptive wavelet predictor for dynamic bandwidth allocation. The wavelet predictor converges faster and hence, tracks scene changes better. Our simulation results show that, in comparison with LMS predictor, the wavelet predictor reduces the prediction error by an average of 11% over the six half-an-hour-long empirical MPEG-1 traces. The dynamic bandwidth allocation using wavelet prediction significantly reduces the cell-loss-rate over various network settings, especially at large buffer sizes.

Source models for VBR broadcast-video traffic

Traffic from video services is expected to be a substantial portion of the traffic carried by emerging broadband integrated networks. For variable bit rate (VBR) coded video, statistical source models are needed to design networks that achieve acceptable picture quality at minimum cost and to design traffic shaping and control mechanisms. For video teleconference traffic Heyman et al. (1992) showed that traffic is sufficiently accurately characterized by a multistate Markov chain model that can be derived from three traffic parameters (mean, correlation, and variance). The present authors describe modeling results for sequences with frequent scene changes (the previously studied video teleconferences have very little scene variation) such as entertainment television, news, and sports broadcasts. The authors analyze 11 long sequences of broadcast video traffic data. Unlike video teleconferences, the different sequences studied have different details regarding distributions of cells per frame. The authors present source models applicable to the different sequences and evaluate their accuracy as predictors of cell losses in asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. The modeling approach is the same for all of the sequences but use of a single model based on a few physically meaningful parameters and applicable to all sequences does not seem to be possible.

Reducing Excessive Television Viewing

Excessive television watching among children can have several negative consequences, including exposure to frequent violent and aggressive scenes and limitations in their opportunities to engage in alternative educational and prosocial activities. In the present study, a youngster evidencing high levels of television viewing behavior was placed on a modified token economy: earned tokens were used to activate the television for set periods of time. With onset of the intervention, immediate and dramatic reductions in television viewing were noted. High levels returned during a return to baseline phase, but reductions again occured when the intervention was reimplmented. Positive second-order effects were noted in the child's school work, in the amounts of time the family spent together, and in the mother's perception of a social support variable.