3D high definition video coding on a GPU-based heterogeneous system

H.264/MVC is a standard for supporting the sensation of 3D, based on coding from 2 (stereo) to N views. H.264/MVC adopts many coding options inherited from single view H.264/AVC, and thus its complexity is even higher, mainly because the number of processing views is higher. In this manuscript, we aim at an efficient parallelization of the most computationally intensive video encoding module for stereo sequences. In particular, inter prediction and its collaborative execution on a heterogeneous platform. The proposal is based on an efficient dynamic load balancing algorithm and on breaking encoding dependencies. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed algorithm's ability to reduce the encoding time for different stereo high definition sequences. Speed-up values of up to 90× were obtained when compared with the reference encoder on the same platform. Moreover, the proposed algorithm also provides a more energy-efficient approach and hence requires less energy than the sequential reference algorith

Caracterizacion de la sequia en pastos anuales en Dehesas / Characterization of pasture drought in dehesas of Spain

La sequía es un término meteorológico que significa un periodo seco prolongado. El objetivo de este trabajo es caracterizar el fenómeno estacional de la sequía en pastos anuales de dehesa. Durante 2010 y 2011 se realizó un seguimiento del pasto herbáceo en El Cubo de Don Sancho (Salamanca), Trujillo (Cáceres) y Pozoblanco (Córdoba). Se midió la producción herbácea y se caracterizó botánicamente cada zona, además se midió mensualmente la variación del contenido de agua en el suelo mediante un TDR y la precipitación. Los datos de campo de precipitación, humedad del suelo y cantidad de pasto en pie, y los datos estimados de evaporación se han comparado con la evolución del índice de vegetación para seguros de sequía por teledetección determinado por Agroseguro. Los resultados mostraron un retardo entre la acumulación de agua en el suelo y el crecimiento del pasto, que se transfiere a las medidas del índice de vegetación por teledetección. En los dos años de estudio los periodos de sequía sucedieron al inicio de crecimiento, justo después de la sequía estacional típica del verano

Radiative decays of light vector mesons in a quark level linear sigma model

We calculate the P0 to gamma gamma, V0 to P0 gamma and V0to V'0 gamma gamma decays in the framework of a U(3)xU(3) linear sigma model which includes constituent quarks. For the first two decays this approach improves results based on the anomalous Wess-Zumino term, with contributions due to SU(3) symmetry breaking and vector mixing. The phi to (omega,rho) gamma gamma decays are dominated by resonant eta' exchange . Our calculation for the later decays improves and update similar calculations in the -closely related- framework of vector meson dominance. We obtain BR(phi to rho gamma gamma)=2.5x10^{-5} and BR(phi to omega gamma gamma)=2.8x10^{-6} within the scope of the high-luminosity phi factories.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Scalar meson dynamics in Chiral Perturbation Theory

A comparison of the linear sigma model (L$\sigma$M) and Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) predictions for pion and kaon dynamics is presented. Lowest and next-to-leading order terms in the ChPT amplitudes are reproduced if one restricts to scalar resonance exchange. Some low energy constants of the order $p^4$ ChPT Lagrangian are fixed in terms of scalar meson masses. Present values of these low energy constants are compatible with the L$\sigma$M dynamics. We conclude that more accurate values would be most useful either to falsify the L$\sigma$M or to show its capability to shed some light on the controversial scalar physics.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX 4.0. Final version accepted for publicatio

Semi-supervised incremental learning with few examples for discovering medical association rules

Background: Association Rules are one of the main ways to represent structural patterns underlying raw data. They represent dependencies between sets of observations contained in the data. The associations established by these rules are very useful in the medical domain, for example in the predictive health field. Classic algorithms for association rule mining give rise to huge amounts of possible rules that should be filtered in order to select those most likely to be true. Most of the proposed techniques for these tasks are unsupervised. However, the accuracy provided by unsupervised systems is limited. Conversely, resorting to annotated data for training supervised systems is expensive and time-consuming. The purpose of this research is to design a new semi-supervised algorithm that performs like supervised algorithms but uses an affordable amount of training data. Methods: In this work we propose a new semi-supervised data mining model that combines unsupervised techniques (Fisher's exact test) with limited supervision. Starting with a small seed of annotated data, the model improves results (F-measure) obtained, using a fully supervised system (standard supervised ML algorithms). The idea is based on utilising the agreement between the predictions of the supervised system and those of the unsupervised techniques in a series of iterative steps. Results: The new semi-supervised ML algorithm improves the results of supervised algorithms computed using the F-measure in the task of mining medical association rules, but training with an affordable amount of manually annotated data. Conclusions: Using a small amount of annotated data (which is easily achievable) leads to results similar to those of a supervised system. The proposal may be an important step for the practical development of techniques for mining association rules and generating new valuable scientific medical knowledge.This work has been partially supported by projects DOTT-HEALTH (PID2019-106942RB-C32, MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE). (Design of the study. Analysis and interpretation of data) and EXTRAE II (IMIENS 2019). (Design of the study. Analysis and interpretation of data. HUF corpus manual tagging. Writing of the manuscript), PI18CIII/00004 “Infobanco para uso secundario de datos basado en estándares de tecnología y conocimiento: implementación y evaluación de un infobanco de salud para CoRIS (Info-bank for the secondary use of data based on technology and knowledge standards: implementation and evaluation of a health info-bank for CoRIS) – SmartPITeS” (Data collection and HUF corpus construction), and PI18CIII/00019 - PI18/00890 - PI18/00981 “Arquitectura normalizada de datos clínicos para la generación de infobancos y su uso secundario en investigación: solución tecnológica (Clinical data normalized architecture for the genaration of info-banks and their secondary use in research: technological solution) – CAMAMA 4” (Data collection and HUF corpus construction) from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS) Plan Nacional de I+D+i.S

Influence of the Aliphatic Chain Length on the Crosslinking Properties of Aldehydes on Sustainable Bioplastics Obtained from Pea Protein

Conventional plastics can be substituted for protein-based bioplastics due to their natural origin and their biodegradability. Nevertheless, their properties are inferior to those obtained for synthetic plastics. The chemical crosslinking of these bioplastics with aldehydes could improve their properties to compete in the actual market. Thus, the main goal of this article was to assess the influence of the incorporation of aldehydes with different aliphatic chain length on the physicochemical (crosslinking degree, colour and transparency), mechanical (flexural and tensile behaviour) and functional (water uptake capacity and biodegradability) properties of protein-based bioplastics. In this sense, pea protein, a by-product of food industry, was used as raw material, processing it by injection moulding to obtain the bioplastics. Formaldehyde, glyoxal and glutaraldehyde were the aldehydes used as crosslinking agents. The results show the rise of the mechanical properties with the incorporation of the aldehydes, depending on the degree of crosslinking they generate. All this also causes a consequent loss of the water uptake capacity and an increase in biodegradability time. In conclusion, this work opens a new alternative to develop sustainable bioplastics that can be used in the market.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación- Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MCI/AEI/FEDER, EU) from the Spanish Government (Ref. PID2021-124294OB-C21). Junta de Andalucía and European Social Fund (Ref. PAIDI DOCTOR – Convocatoria 2019/2020, DOC_00586). Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional (Ref. FPU17/01718)

Development and validation of an assay for measurement of leptin in pig saliva

Leptin has been measured in human in saliva samples. However, the low leptin concentration found in this biological fluid makes necessary the use of high sensitive methods. To the authors' knowledge, leptin has not been measured in porcine saliva. This study aimed to develop and validate a time-resolved immunofluorometric assay (TR-IFMA) for salivary leptin measurements in pigs, using a species-specific antibody, and to evaluate how salivary leptin changes with body weight, food ingestion, and in experimental models of stress and inflammation. Polyclonal antibodies were produced in rabbits immunized with recombinant porcine leptin and used to develop a sandwich TR-IFMA. The method had intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation lower than 10 and 16 %, respectively. The assay was accurate and the low limit of detection allowed detection of leptin in all analyzed samples. Salivary leptin concentration was positively correlated to body weight (r = 0.58, P = 0.01) and increased after food ingestion (P < 0.001) and after 24 h of applying a model of experimental inflammation by turpentine injection (P < 0.05). However, it did not significantly change after a model of acute stress consisting of a nose snare restraining. These results indicate that the developed assay can measure leptin in porcine saliva in a reliable way and that leptin in saliva is influenced by body weight, food ingestion and inflammation