Very low bit-rate video coding focusing on moving regions using three-tier arbitrary-shaped pattern selection algorithm

Very low bit-rate video coding using patterns to represent moving regions in macroblocks exhibits good potential for improved coding efficiency. Recently an Arbitrary Shaped Pattern Selection (ASPS) algorithm and its Extended version(EASPS) were presented, that used a dynamically extracted set of patterns, of the two different sizes, based on actual video content. These algorithms, like other pattern matching algorithms failed to capture a large number of active-region macroblocks (RMB) especially when the object moving regions is relatively larger in a video sequence. As the size of the moving object may vary, superior coding performance is achievable by using dynamically extracted patterns of a larger size. This paper, proposes a three-tier Arbitrary Shaped Pattern Selection (ASPS-3) algorithm that uses three different pattern sizes for very low bit ate coding. Experimental results show that ASPS-3 exhibits better performance compared with other pattern matching algorithms, including the low-bit rate video coding standard H.263

Efficient coding in dolphin surface behavioral patterns

We show that the law of brevity, i.e. the tendency of words to shorten as their frequency increases, is also found in dolphin surface behavioral patterns. As far as we know, this is the first evidence of the law in another species, suggesting that coding efficiency is not unique to humans.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Connectivity reflects coding: A model of voltage-based spike-timing-dependent-plasticity with homeostasis

Electrophysiological connectivity patterns in cortex often show a few strong connections in a sea of weak connections. In some brain areas a large fraction of strong connections are bidirectional, in others they are mainly unidirectional. In order to explain these connectivity patterns, we use a model of Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity where synaptic changes depend on presynaptic spike arrival and the postsynaptic membrane potential. The model describes several nonlinear effects in STDP experiments, as well as the voltage dependence of plasticity under voltage clamp and classical paradigms of LTP/LTD induction. We show that in a simulated recurrent network of spiking neurons our plasticity rule leads not only to receptive field development, but also to connectivity patterns that reflect the neural code: for temporal coding paradigms strong connections are predominantly unidirectional, whereas they are bidirectional under rate coding. Thus variable connectivity patterns in the brain could reflect different coding principles across brain areas

Long non-coding RNA profiling of human lymphoid progenitor cells reveals transcriptional divergence of B cell and T cell lineages.

To elucidate the transcriptional 'landscape' that regulates human lymphoid commitment during postnatal life, we used RNA sequencing to assemble the long non-coding transcriptome across human bone marrow and thymic progenitor cells spanning the earliest stages of B lymphoid and T lymphoid specification. Over 3,000 genes encoding previously unknown long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were revealed through the analysis of these rare populations. Lymphoid commitment was characterized by lncRNA expression patterns that were highly stage specific and were more lineage specific than those of protein-coding genes. Protein-coding genes co-expressed with neighboring lncRNA genes showed enrichment for ontologies related to lymphoid differentiation. The exquisite cell-type specificity of global lncRNA expression patterns independently revealed new developmental relationships among the earliest progenitor cells in the human bone marrow and thymus

Network Coding in a Multicast Switch

We consider the problem of serving multicast flows in a crossbar switch. We show that linear network coding across packets of a flow can sustain traffic patterns that cannot be served if network coding were not allowed. Thus, network coding leads to a larger rate region in a multicast crossbar switch. We demonstrate a traffic pattern which requires a switch speedup if coding is not allowed, whereas, with coding the speedup requirement is eliminated completely. In addition to throughput benefits, coding simplifies the characterization of the rate region. We give a graph-theoretic characterization of the rate region with fanout splitting and intra-flow coding, in terms of the stable set polytope of the 'enhanced conflict graph' of the traffic pattern. Such a formulation is not known in the case of fanout splitting without coding. We show that computing the offline schedule (i.e. using prior knowledge of the flow arrival rates) can be reduced to certain graph coloring problems. Finally, we propose online algorithms (i.e. using only the current queue occupancy information) for multicast scheduling based on our graph-theoretic formulation. In particular, we show that a maximum weighted stable set algorithm stabilizes the queues for all rates within the rate region.Comment: 9 pages, submitted to IEEE INFOCOM 200

Network Coding for Speedup in Switches

We present a graph theoretic upper bound on speedup needed to achieve 100% throughput in a multicast switch using network coding. By bounding speedup, we show the equivalence between network coding and speedup in multicast switches - i.e. network coding, which is usually implemented using software, can in many cases substitute speedup, which is often achieved by adding extra switch fabrics. This bound is based on an approach to network coding problems called the "enhanced conflict graph". We show that the "imperfection ratio" of the enhanced conflict graph gives an upper bound on speedup. In particular, we apply this result to K-by-N switches with traffic patterns consisting of unicasts and broadcasts only to obtain an upper bound of min{(2K-1)/K, 2N/(N+1)}.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, IEEE ISIT 200

A low bit-rate video-coding algorithm based upon variable pattern selection

Recent research into pattern representation of moving regions in blocked-based motion estimation and compensation in video sequences, has focused mainly upon using a fixed number of regular shaped patterns. These are used to match the macroblocks in a frame that have two distinct regions involving static background and moving objects. In this paper a new Variable Pattern Selection (VPS) algorithm is presented which selects a preset number of best-matched patterns from a pattern codebook of regular shaped patterns. While more patterns are used than in the previous work, the performance of the VPS algorithm in using variable length coding, by exploiting the frequency of the best-matched patterns, leads to a higher compression ratio, without degrading the overall image quality

Neural coding strategies and mechanisms of competition

A long running debate has concerned the question of whether neural representations are encoded using a distributed or a local coding scheme. In both schemes individual neurons respond to certain specific patterns of pre-synaptic activity. Hence, rather than being dichotomous, both coding schemes are based on the same representational mechanism. We argue that a population of neurons needs to be capable of learning both local and distributed representations, as appropriate to the task, and should be capable of generating both local and distributed codes in response to different stimuli. Many neural network algorithms, which are often employed as models of cognitive processes, fail to meet all these requirements. In contrast, we present a neural network architecture which enables a single algorithm to efficiently learn, and respond using, both types of coding scheme

Coexistence of different base periodicities in prokaryotic genomes as related to DNA curvature, supercoiling, and transcription

We analyzed the periodic patterns in E. coli promoters and compared the distributions of the corresponding patterns in promoters and in the complete genome to elucidate their function. Except the three-base periodicity, coincident with that in the coding regions and growing stronger in the region downstream from the transcriptions start (TS), all other salient periodicities are peaked upstream of TS. We found that helical periodicities with the lengths about B-helix pitch ~10.2-10.5 bp and A-helix pitch ~10.8-11.1 bp coexist in the genomic sequences. We mapped the distributions of stretches with A-, B-, and Z- like DNA periodicities onto E.coli genome. All three periodicities tend to concentrate within non-coding regions when their intensity becomes stronger and prevail in the promoter sequences. The comparison with available experimental data indicates that promoters with the most pronounced periodicities may be related to the supercoiling-sensitive genes.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, 2 table