Unequal Error Protected JPEG 2000 Broadcast Scheme with Progressive Fountain Codes

This paper proposes a novel scheme, based on progressive fountain codes, for broadcasting JPEG 2000 multimedia. In such a broadcast scheme, progressive resolution levels of images/video have been unequally protected when transmitted using the proposed progressive fountain codes. With progressive fountain codes applied in the broadcast scheme, the resolutions of images (JPEG 2000) or videos (MJPEG 2000) received by different users can be automatically adaptive to their channel qualities, i.e. the users with good channel qualities are possible to receive the high resolution images/vedio while the users with bad channel qualities may receive low resolution images/vedio. Finally, the performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated with the MJPEG 2000 broadcast prototype

Rateless Codes with Progressive Recovery for Layered Multimedia Delivery

This paper proposes a novel approach, based on unequal error protection, to enhance rateless codes with progressive recovery for layered multimedia delivery. With a parallel encoding structure, the proposed Progressive Rateless codes (PRC) assign unequal redundancy to each layer in accordance with their importance. Each output symbol contains information from all layers, and thus the stream layers can be recovered progressively at the expected received ratios of output symbols. Furthermore, the dependency between layers is naturally considered. The performance of the PRC is evaluated and compared with some related UEP approaches. Results show that our PRC approach provides better recovery performance with lower overhead both theoretically and numerically

Bridge the Gap Between VQA and Human Behavior on Omnidirectional Video: A Large-Scale Dataset and a Deep Learning Model

Omnidirectional video enables spherical stimuli with the $360 \times 180^ \circ$ viewing range. Meanwhile, only the viewport region of omnidirectional video can be seen by the observer through head movement (HM), and an even smaller region within the viewport can be clearly perceived through eye movement (EM). Thus, the subjective quality of omnidirectional video may be correlated with HM and EM of human behavior. To fill in the gap between subjective quality and human behavior, this paper proposes a large-scale visual quality assessment (VQA) dataset of omnidirectional video, called VQA-OV, which collects 60 reference sequences and 540 impaired sequences. Our VQA-OV dataset provides not only the subjective quality scores of sequences but also the HM and EM data of subjects. By mining our dataset, we find that the subjective quality of omnidirectional video is indeed related to HM and EM. Hence, we develop a deep learning model, which embeds HM and EM, for objective VQA on omnidirectional video. Experimental results show that our model significantly improves the state-of-the-art performance of VQA on omnidirectional video.Comment: Accepted by ACM MM 201

Judicial Review of State-Owned Enterprises at the Crossroads

This article determines the impact of the Court of Appeal decision Auckland Electric Power Board v Electricity Corporation of New Zealand on the scope of judicial review under the Judicature Amendment Act 1972, and specifically, on judicial review of the commercial decisions of State-owned enterprises. It asks why these judges differ in their approach to the scope of judicial review from those in other cases. The article then compares the approach under judicial review in this case with that under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 in Federated Farmers of NZ (Inc) v NZ Post Ltd, and concludes that the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act can be used to subject the decisions of corporatised, and maybe also privatised, bodies to substantive review akin to economic regulation. It determines whether this is appropriate. The article concludes by asking whether the appeal of the ECNZ decision to the Privy Council in early 1994 could be made under section 27(1) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act for failure to grant "natural justice", and determines the extent to which remedies for breaches of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act may go beyond those under judicial review

New Zealand's Ombudsmen Legislation: The Need for Amendments After Almost 50 Years

It has been almost fifty years since the original Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman) Act was passed in 1962, the precursor to the current Ombudsmen Act 1975. Since that time, the role has expanded significantly and the constitutional framework in which the Ombudsman operates has also changed significantly, yet the legislation has never undergone a thorough review. In this article, Mai Chen examines how Ombudsmen are a key tool in the Public Law Toolbox. She reviews the functions of the Office, showing that it can be more effective than courts in addressing issues of public administration in some circumstances, due to its accessibility, low cost to the complainant, and range of remedies available. The article concludes that as so much of the Ombudsmen's work is in private, the lack of formal use of statutory powers to compel or to make formal recommendations may actually evidence their effectiveness in using persuasion to get those complained about to redress the problem. Ms Chen makes a number of reform proposals to reflect recent developments, and to allow the Office to fulfil its constitutional role including a specific public education function, a 20 working day deadline on providing the Ombudsmen with any information requested, a presumption of jurisdiction for bodies exercising public powers affecting the public and which are publicly funded, an express power to comment on law-making with implications for the Ombudsmen and Official Information Acts, extending jurisdiction to "committees of the whole" in Local Government, and a single fixed term to protect Ombudsmen independence in office. The article also considers whether wide use of the name Ombudsmen should be allowed for private sector investigative and complaints bodies

Socialism, Aestheticized Bodies, and International Circuits of Gender: Soviet Female Film Stars in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1969

This paper analyses the importance of love relations and sexuality in Soviet film for Chinese socialism in the 1950s and 1960s. By looking at the movement of Soviet women across the Sino-Soviet border — in films and as part of film delegations — I highlight the international circuits of gender that shaped socialist womanhood in China. I examine Chinese discussion of Soviet film stars including Marina Ladynina, Vera Maretskaia, and Marina Kovaleva. I locate the movement away from 'fun-loving post-revolutionary' womanhood associated with Ladynina to socialist womanhood located in struggle and partisanship within the larger context of Maoist theory and Sino-Soviet relations. In my examination of debates over which female film stars were appropriate for China I draw out celebrated and sanctioned couplings of Chinese and Soviet film heroines, such as the links made between Zoya and Zhao Yiman. By looking at how Soviet film stars became part of Chinese political aesthetics, sexuality and love emerge as more important to our understanding of womanhood in Maoist China than has been recognized by most scholars of gender in China. This approach therefore offers a new perspective on Maoist ideologies of gender with its emphasis on non-Chinese bodies as constitutive of gender subjectivities in Maoist China. I argue that while gender in Maoist China was primarily enacted on a national level, internationalism and international circuits of gender were central to its articulation.Cet article analyse l’importance des relations amoureuses et de la sexualité dans les films soviétiques dans le socialisme chinois des années 1950 et 1960. En examinant le mouvement des femmes soviétiques de part et d’autre de la frontière sino-soviétique – dans les films et comme membres des délégations de films — l’auteur fait ressortir les circuits internationaux des rapports hommes-femmes qui ont façonné l’image de la femme dans la Chine socialiste. Elle examine le point de vue des vedettes du cinéma soviétique comme Marina Ladynina, Vera Maretskaia et Marina Kovaleva par rapport à la Chine. Elle situe le mouvement loin de l’image de la femme « post-révolutionnaire qui aime s’amuser » associée à Marina Ladynina et plus près de l’image de la femme socialiste des conflits et de la partisannerie dans le plus vaste contexte de la théorie maoïste et des relations sino-soviétiques. Dans son examen des débats permettant d’établir les vedettes féminines du cinéma qui étaient appropriées pour la Chine, l’auteur retient les héroïnes des couples célèbres et approuvés des films chinois et soviétiques, comme celui de Zoya et Zhao Yiman. En examinant la façon dont les vedettes du cinéma soviétique ont fait partie de l’esthétique politique chinois, l’auteur fait ressortir que la sexualité et l’amour sont plus importants dans sa perception de la femme dans la Chine maoïste qu’ils ne l’ont été pour la plupart des spécialistes des rapports hommes-femmes en Chine. En conséquence, cette approche offre une nouvelle perspective des idéologies maoïstes des rapports hommes-femmes grâce à l’intérêt particulier qu’elle accorde aux entités non- chinoises comme parties constituantes des subjectivités associées aux rapports hommes-femmes dans la Chine maoïste. L’auteur fait valoir que bien que les rapports hommes-femmes dans la Chine maoïste étaient surtout édictés au niveau national, l’internationalisme et les circuits internationaux des rapports hommes-femmes étaient au centre de leur articulation

Microwave Chirality Imaging for the Early Diagnosis of Neurological Degenerative Diseases

We propose a system to visualize the chirality of the protein in brains, which would be helpful to diagnose early neurological degenerative diseases in vivo. These neurological degenerative diseases often occur along with some mark proteins. By nanoparticle instilling and metamaterial technique, the chiral effect of the mark proteins is assumed to be manifest in microwave regime. Therefore, by detecting the transmission of cross-polarization, we could detect the chirality that rotates the microwave polarization angle. We developed a numerical method to simulate the electromagnetic response upon chiral (bi-isotropic) material. Then a numerical experiment was conduct with a numerical head phantom. A map of cross-polarized transmission magnitude can be reached by sweeping the antenna pair. The imaging results matches well with the distribution of chiral materials. It suggests that the proposed method would be capable of in vivo imaging of neurological degenerative disease using microwaves

Assisted optimal state discrimination without entanglement

A fundamental problem in quantum information is to explore the roles of different quantum correlations in a quantum information procedure. Recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett., 107 (2011) 080401] shows that the protocol for assisted optimal state discrimination (AOSD) may be implemented successfully without entanglement, but with another correlation, quantum dissonance. However, both the original work and the extension to discrimination of $d$ states [Phys. Rev. A, 85 (2012) 022328] have only proved that entanglement can be absent in the case with equal a \emph{priori} probabilities. By improving the protocol in [Sci. Rep., 3 (2013) 2134], we investigate this topic in a simple case to discriminate three nonorthogonal states of a qutrit, with positive real overlaps. In our procedure, the entanglement between the qutrit and an auxiliary qubit is found to be completely unnecessary. This result shows that the quantum dissonance may play as a key role in optimal state discrimination assisted by a qubit for more general cases.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by EPL. We extended the protocol for assisted optimal state discrimination to the case with positive real overlaps, and presented a proof for the absence of entanglemen