Weathering - A Graphic Essay

Aina Azevedo is indebted to CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education, Brazil) for the scholarship received during her post-doctoral research that was fundamental to the realisation of this graphic essay.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Avoiding Interruptions - QoE Trade-offs in Block-coded Streaming Media Applications

We take an analytical approach to study Quality of user Experience (QoE) for video streaming applications. First, we show that random linear network coding applied to blocks of video frames can significantly simplify the packet requests at the network layer and save resources by avoiding duplicate packet reception. Network coding allows us to model the receiver's buffer as a queue with Poisson arrivals and deterministic departures. We consider the probability of interruption in video playback as well as the number of initially buffered packets (initial waiting time) as the QoE metrics. We characterize the optimal trade-off between these metrics by providing upper and lower bounds on the minimum initial buffer size, required to achieve certain level of interruption probability for different regimes of the system parameters. Our bounds are asymptotically tight as the file size goes to infinity.Comment: Submitted to ISIT 2010 - Full versio

Narratives in music: Schelmo, Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra

Born in July 1880, in Geneva, Switzerland, Ernest Bloch became one of the leading composers of the 20th century. He wrote series of works, which he called “The Jewish Cycle.” They represented a new, distinctive musical language, in which Bloch combined eastern and western music traits. Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra (1915-16) was the last composition from the cycle. It showed mastery of a style Bloch had been developing since his earlier compositions. This project will show Schelomo’s place in “The Jewish Cycle” and its importance on Bloch’s departure from the popular trends of the early 20th century. It will discuss Jewish music culture characteristics as they relate to the piece’s strong narrative power and Bloch’s own musical language in retelling the story of King Solomon. The project is going to be organized as follows: Chapter 1 will provide information about Ernest Bloch’s biography and works. Chapter 2 will discuss Bloch’s influences as they relate to his compositions. Chapter 3 will introduce the common stylistic features of the compositions from “The Jewish Cycle.” Chapter 4 will discuss the musical language Bloch used in Schelomo, in retelling the story of King Solomon

Network Security and Contagion

We develop a theoretical model of security investments in a network of interconnected agents. Network connections introduce the possibility of cascading failures due to an exogenous or endogenous attack depending on the profile of security investments by the agents. The general presumption in the literature, based on intuitive arguments or analysis of symmetric networks, is that because security investments create positive externalities on other agents, there will be underinvestment in security. We show that this reasoning is incomplete because of a first-order economic force: security investments are also strategic substitutes. In a general (non-symmetric) network, this implies that underinvestment by some agents will encourage overinvestment by others. We demonstrate by means of examples there can be overinvestment by some agents and also that aggregate probabilities of infection can be lower in equilibrium compared to the social optimum. We then provide sufficient conditions for underinvestment. This requires both sufficiently convex cost functions (convexity alone is not enough) and networks that are either symmetric or locally tree-like. We also characterize the impact of network structure on equilibrium and optimal investments. Finally, we show that when the attack location is endogenized (by assuming that the attacker chooses a probability distribution over the location of the attack in order to maximize damage), there is an additional incentive for overinvestment: greater investment by an agent shifts the attack to other parts of the network.We thank various numerous seminar and conference participants for useful suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Toulouse Network with Information Technology and Army Research Office

Synthesis and antimicrobial properties of N-substituted derivatives of (E)-2 ',3 ''-thiazachalcones

WOS: 000359346500007PubMed: 25854843N-alkyl substituted 2',3 ''-thiazachalcones {3-[(1E)-3-(4-methylthiophene-2-yl)-3-oxoprop-1-en-1-yl]-1-alkyl (C-5-12,C-14) pyridinium bromides} were synthesized by a two-step reaction. the newly synthesized compounds were characterized by IR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, elemental analysis and mass spectral studies. the synthesized compounds were tested for antibacterial activities and found to be more active against Gram-positive as compared to Gram-negative bacteria.Recep Tayyip Erdogan University of TurkeyRecep Tayyip Erdogan University [2013.102.02.6]This study was supported by grants from Recep Tayyip Erdogan University (project number: 2013.102.02.6) of Turkey

The Passenger Steamer and Cypriot Modernism, 1930-1970

Primjena motiva broda konstantna je pojava u modernoj arhitekturi od 1920-ih godina. U ovom se članku po prvi puta analizira značenje motiva broda u ciparskom modernizmu oslanjajući se na semiotičku studiju Gerta Kählera o motivu parobroda (Dampfermotiv). Motivi broda se na većini građevina koriste za stvaranje futurističkog ili dekorativnog dojma, dok je malo onih koji asociraju na putnički parobrod upućujući na metafore zajednice i spašavanja/liječenja.Applied ship motifs are an ongoing phenomenon of modern architecture since the 1920s. Referring mainly to Gert Kähler’s semiotic study on the ”Dampfermotiv”, this paper analyses for the first time comprehensively the meaning of ship motifs in the Cypriot Moderne. Whereas most buildings display ship motifs just in a futuristic or decorative manner, a few connote the passenger steamer, evoking two specific metaphors: ”community” and ”rescue/healing”

The Loos of Time and Space: From Production to Consumption

The concept of modernity has been changed and evolved from the industrial revolution up to present. Looking at the theory of modernity and its effects on human life, it can be said that, modernism has made fundamental changes in the perception of time and space. These fundamental changes have been affective on urban and urban life, as well as, on all aspects of life, such as the urban space character and the usage practices. The changes in historical cities has not limited to urban character, it has become an attack to urban memory. Like many things of the past, also “the space” has been exposed to rapid consumption, in the age of consumption, that we live in. In this context, the paper will consist of the main theme of “spatial transformation”. In this aim, the historic industrial buildings, which gain new functions as shopping centres today, will be examined. The spatial changes will be put forward in the light of “non-places” concept, which has been mentioned by Marc Augé

The perception of prominence: a Rapid Prosody Transcription study with Estonian listeners

This study investigates the effect of different prosodic variables (e.g., pitch, syllable duration, presence of pitch accent and intonation boundary) and non-prosodic variables (e.g., type of verbal argument, presence of clause boundary, part-of-speech and number of syllables) on the perception of prominence in spontaneous Estonian. Following the methodology of Rapid Prosody Transcription, 396 randomly selected speech fragments from ten speakers were presented over the internet to 51 prosodically untrained listeners, whose task was to highlight the words they heard as prominent. The same dataset was annotated for intonational pitch accents and boundary tones by two experts. The results demonstrate that the strongest predictors of prominence perception are the pitch and duration of stressed syllables together with the presence of a pitch accent while the non-prosodic variables are somewhat weaker. The study corroborates earlier findings in that the perceptual salience in spoken language processing depends largely on the acoustic signal-based cues. Kokkuvõte. Nele Ots ja Eva Liina Asu: Prominentsuse taju eesti keeles: prosoodia kiirtranskribeerimise uurimus eesti keele kõnelejatega. Artikkel uurib eri prosoodiliste tunnuste (põhitoon, rõhulise silbi kestus, tooni aktsendi ja intonatsioonipiiri olemasolu) ning mitteprosoodiliste tunnuste (verbi argument, klausipiiri olemasolu, sõnaliik ja silpide arv) mõju prominentsuse tajule spontaanses eesti keeles. Lähtudes prosoodia kiirtranskriptsiooni (Rapid Prosody Transcription, RPT) metodoloogiast, esitati 396 juhuslikult valitud spontaanse kõne lõiku interneti teel 51-le prosoodia valdkonnas koolitamata kuulajale, kelle ülesandeks oli tekstis esile tõsta sõnad, mis kuuldusid neile rõhulisena. Kaks kõneprosoodia uurijat transkribeerisid samades kõne lõikudes tooniaktsendid ja intonatsioonipiirid. Tulemused näitavad, et prominentsuse taju tähtsaimad ennustajad on tooniaktsent, põhitoon ning silbi kestus. Mitteprosoodilised tunnused mõjutavad prominentsuse taju mõnevõrra vähem. Katse tulemused kinnitavad varasemate uurimuste järeldust, et tajutud prominentsus sõltub eelkõige akustilistest signaalipõhistest tunnustest. Märksõnad: prominentsus, taju, intonatsioon, tooniaktsent, sõnaliik, argumendistruktuur, prosoodia kiirtranskriptsioon (RPT), eesti kee