Specific Chunks Research Articles

Dynamic Equilibrium of Sustainable Ecosystem Variables: An Experiment

Developing indicators to monitor the dynamic equilibrium of sustainable ecosystem variables has been challenging for policymakers, companies, and researchers. The new method matrix decomposition analysis (MDA) is an adaptation of the Leontief input–output equations for the disaggregated structural decomposition of key performance indicators (KPI). The main problem that this work addresses is related to the behavior of MDA when compared to traditional methodologies such as data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Can MDA be considered robust enough for wide applicability? To compare the models, we developed a methodology called marginal exponentiation experiments. This approach is a type of simulation that raises the inputs and outputs of an entity to a marginal power, thus making it possible to compare a large number of models with the same data. RMarkdown was used for methodological operationalization, wherein data science steps are coded in specific chunks, applying a layered process with modeling. The comparison between the models is operationalized in layers using techniques such as descriptive statistics, correlation, cluster, and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Given the results, we argue that MDA is a Leontief partial equilibrium model that produces indicators with dual interpretation, enabling the measurement of the dynamic equilibrium of sustainable ecosystem variables. Furthermore, the method offers a new ranking system that detects relative changes in the use of resources correlated with efficiency analysis. The practical value for decision-makers relates to the fact that we found evidence that MDA can be considered robust enough to identify whether a given ecosystem is in equilibrium and that the excessive use of resources or abnormal productivity can cause instability.

Low Latency Low Loss Media Delivery Utilizing In-Network Packet Wash

This paper presents new techniques and mechanisms for carrying streams of layered video using Scalable Video Coding (SVC) from servers to clients, utilizing the Packet Wash mechanism which is part of the Big Packet Protocol (BPP). BPP was designed to handle the transfer of packets for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications, aiming to overcome a number of issues current networks have with high precision services. One of the most important advantages of BPP is that it allows the dynamic adaption of packets during transmission. BPP uses Packet Wash to reduce the payload, and the size of a packet by eliminating specific chunks. For video, this means cutting out specific segments of the transferred video, rather than dropping packets, as happens with UDP based transmission, or retrying the transmission of packets, as happens with TCP. The chunk elimination approach is well matched with SVC video, and these techniques and mechanisms are utilized and presented. An evaluation of the performance is provided, plus a comparison of using UDP or TCP, which are the other common approaches for carrying media over IP. Our main contributions are the mapping of SVC video into BPP packets to provide low latency, low loss delivery, which provides better QoE performance than either UDP or TCP, when using those techniques and mechanisms. This approach has proved to be an effective way to enhance the performance of video streaming applications, by obtaining continuous delivery, while maintaining guaranteed quality at the receiver. In this work we have successfully used an H264 SVC encoded video for layered video transmission utilizing BPP, and can demonstrate video delivery with low latency and low loss in limited bandwidth environments.

Reading the Future from Body Movements –Anticipation in Handball

In speed-based sports that require fast reactions, the most accurate predictions are made once the players have seen the ball trajectory. However, waiting for the ball trajectory does not leave enough time for appropriate reactions. Expert athletes use kinematic information which they extract from the opponent’s movements to anticipate the ball trajectory. Temporal occlusion, where only a part of the full movement sequence is presented, has often been used to research anticipation in sports. Unlike many previous studies, we chose occlusion points in video-stimuli of penalty shooting in handball based on the domain-specific analysis of movement sequences. Instead of relying on randomly chosen occlusion points, each time point in our study revealed a specific chunk of information about the direction of the ball. The multivariate analysis showed that handball goalkeepers were not only more accurate and faster than novices overall when predicting where the ball will end up, but that experts and novices also made their decisions based on different kinds of movement sequences. These findings underline the importance of kinematic knowledge for anticipation, but they also demonstrate the significance of carefully chosen occlusion points.

Low-Cost Memory Fault Tolerance for IoT Devices

IoT devices need reliable hardware at low cost. It is challenging to efficiently cope with both hard and soft faults in embedded scratchpad memories. To address this problem, we propose a two-step approach: FaultLink and Software-Defined Error-Localizing Codes (SDELC). FaultLink avoids hard faults found during testing by generating a custom-tailored application binary image for each individual chip. During software deployment-time, FaultLink optimally packs small sections of program code and data into fault-free segments of the memory address space and generates a custom linker script for a lazy-linking procedure. During run-time, SDELC deals with unpredictable soft faults via novel and inexpensive Ultra-Lightweight Error-Localizing Codes (UL-ELCs). These require fewer parity bits than single-error-correcting Hamming codes. Yet our UL-ELCs are more powerful than basic single-error-detecting parity: they localize single-bit errors to a specific chunk of a codeword. SDELC then heuristically recovers from these localized errors using a small embedded C library that exploits observable side information (SI) about the application’s memory contents. SI can be in the form of redundant data (value locality), legal/illegal instructions, etc. Our combined FaultLink+SDELC approach improves min-VDD by up to 440 mV and correctly recovers from up to 90% (70%) of random single-bit soft faults in data (instructions) with just three parity bits per 32-bit word.

Enhancing Mobile Video Capacity and Quality Using Rate Adaptation, RAN Caching and Processing

Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streaming has become a popular video delivery technique, credited with improving Quality of Experience (QoE) of videos delivered on wireless networks. Recent independent research reveals video caching in the Radio Access Network (RAN) holds promise for increasing the network capacity and improving video QoE. In this paper, we investigate opportunities and challenges of combining the advantages of ABR and RAN caching to increase the video capacity and QoE of the wireless networks. While each ABR video is divided into multiple chunks that can be requested at different bit rates, a cache hit requires the presence of a specific chunk at a desired bit rate, making ABR-aware RAN caching challenging. To address this without having to cache all bit rate versions of a video, we propose adding limited processing capacity to each RAN cache. This enables transrating a higher rate version that may be available in the cache, to satisfy a request for a lower rate version, and joint caching and processing policies that leverage the back-haul, caching, and processing resources most effectively, thereby maximizing video capacity of the network. We also propose a novel rate adaptation algorithm that uses video characteristics to simultaneously change the video encoding and transmission rate. The results of extensive statistical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our approaches in achieving significant capacity gain over ABR or RAN caching alone, as well as other ways of enabling ABR-aware RAN caching, while improving video QoE.

Owner Specified Excessive Access Control for Attribute Based Encryption

Attribute-based encryption (ABE) has emerged as a promising solution for access control to diverse set of users in cloud computing systems. Policy can just specify whether (or not) any specific user should be given access to data, but it lacks to provide data owner the privilege to specify (how much) fraction, or (which) specific chunk from that data to be accessed or decrypted. In this paper, we address this issue, and propose a scheme that will give data owner excessive access control, so that he can specify specific chunk out of total data to be accessed by user depending on his attributes. In our scheme, a data owner can encrypt data over attributes specified in a policy, but even if user’s attributes satisfy the policy; he can decrypt data (partially or fully) fractionally based on his attributes specified by owner. The owner can also prioritize user’s access based on his designation, or hierarchal role in a specific organization. We also address to resolve the issue of attributes repetition, due to which the cost of computations in encryption by owner and ciphertext size is reduced. Furthermore, we achieve it with a single ciphertext over policy for entire data, and proof our scheme to be secure in the generic group and random oracle model. Theoretical comparisons of computations with existing constructions, and performance of the scheme evaluated in the Charm simulator is reasonable enough to be adopted in practice.

The RDoC program: psychiatry without psyche?

Cuthbert's dense synopsis of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) proposal (1) raises a lot of questions. I will restrict myself to a few, quite general, theoretical and psychopathological issues.

Historia Augusta contra christianos. An overview of the anti-Christian atmosphere in the Historia Augusta

The religious “Tendenz” of the Historia Augusta has long been a contentious issue among specialists; only by paying close attention to the richly-layered inter-textuality of the work can it be established how acquainted the author was with the niceties of Christian culture, biblical and patristic, and their Jewish core. Samples culled from the biographies of Avidius Cassius, Heliogabalus, Geta, and the two Maximini showcase a cogent literary strategy of juggling parodic allusions to Christianity; the Vita Maximini duo, particularly, would appear to revolve around the inversion of specific chunks of the Gospel of Luke. The epistles of Saint Paul too come in for some tough love. The whole polemical aspect of the Historia Augusta through the cover up of jest and ribaldry must therefore be maintained against the skeptical bowdlerization of the collection some of the most recent scholarship amounts to. It also provides clues that point in the direction of the great Pagan statesman Nichomachus Flavianus senior as our elusive writer.

Early onset of deafening‐induced song deterioration and differential requirements of the pallial‐basal ganglia vocal pathway

Similar to humans, songbirds rely on auditory feedback to maintain the acoustic and sequence structure of adult learned vocalizations. When songbirds are deafened, the learned features of song, such as syllable structure and sequencing, eventually deteriorate. However, the time-course and initial phases of song deterioration have not been well studied, particularly in the most commonly studied songbird, the zebra finch. Here, we observed previously uncharacterized subtle but significant changes to learned song within a few days following deafening. Syllable structure became detectably noisier and silent intervals between song motifs increased. Although song motif sequences remained stable at 2 weeks, as previously reported, pronounced changes occurred in longer stretches of song bout sequences. These included deletions of syllables between song motifs, changes in the frequency at which specific chunks of song were produced and stuttering for birds that had some repetitions of syllables before deafening. Changes in syllable structure and song bout sequence occurred at different rates, indicating different mechanisms for their deterioration. The changes in syllable structure required an intact lateral part but not the medial part of the pallial-basal ganglia vocal pathway, whereas changes in the song bout sequence did not require lateral or medial portions of the pathway. These findings indicate that deafening-induced song changes in zebra finches can be detected rapidly after deafening, that acoustic and sequence changes can occur independently, and that, within this time period, the pallial-basal ganglia vocal pathway controls the acoustic structure changes but not the song bout sequence changes.

Learning artificial grammars with competitive chunking.

Abstract : When exposed to a regular stimulus field, for instance generated by an artificial grammar, subjects unintentionally learn to respond efficiently to the underlying structure: Miller (1958) reports that subjects memorize letter strings generated by an artificial grammar faster than randomly generated strings. Reber (1967) reports that, following rote memorization of exemplar sentences, subjects efficiently discriminate grammatical from non-grammatical strings. We explored the hypothesis that the learning process is chunking and that grammatical knowledge is implicitly encoded in a hierarchical network of chunks. Grammatical judgments are then based on the degree to which integrated representations of strings can be built using those chunks. We trained subjects on exemplar sentences while inducing them to form specific chunks. Their grammatical knowledge was then tested with a discrimination task. We found that subjects were less sensitive to grammatical violations that preserved their chunks than to violations that did not. We derived the theory of competitive chunking (CC) and found that is successfully reproduces, via computer simulations, both Miller's experimental results and our own. Keywords: Unintentional learning, Artificial grammars, Chunking, Perception(Psychology).