Beyond Netflix and Amazon: MUBI and the curation of on-demand film

Whilst operating in the shadows of powerful market leaders Netflix and Amazon, the specialised subscription Video-on-Demand (VOD) platform MUBI has branded itself as a pioneering and innovative platform with a global presence in international markets. MUBI has put itself at the forefront of the evolving online market for specialised films after a period of trial and error. In particular, their business model has undergone radical change over the course of their brief history. We chart the historical development of MUBI with the purpose of analysing its business model and its role as cultural gatekeeper and tastemaker. Through a discussion of their engagement with online distribution, it becomes clear that MUBI’s platform strategies are rooted in an underlying practice and philosophy that closely aligns with conventional traditions and practices of linear and physical media delivery formats. Therefore, we argue that established practices in the physical media market have been relocated online in somewhat new and interesting ways. We also scrutinise MUBI’s response to the challenge of promoting specialised film in a crowded and volatile market. In particular, we analyse MUBI’s recent venture into the wider business of distribution and demonstrate that this strategy is needed to add promotional values to their platform

DMMGAN: Diverse Multi Motion Prediction of 3D Human Joints using Attention-Based Generative Adverserial Network

Human motion prediction is a fundamental part of many human-robot applications. Despite the recent progress in human motion prediction, most studies simplify the problem by predicting the human motion relative to a fixed joint and/or only limit their model to predict one possible future motion. While due to the complex nature of human motion, a single output cannot reflect all the possible actions one can do. Also, for any robotics application, we need the full human motion including the user trajectory not a 3d pose relative to the hip joint. In this paper, we try to address these two issues by proposing a transformer-based generative model for forecasting multiple diverse human motions. Our model generates \textit{N} future possible motion by querying a history of human motion. Our model first predicts the pose of the body relative to the hip joint. Then the \textit{Hip Prediction Module} predicts the trajectory of the hip movement for each predicted pose frame. To emphasize on the diverse future motions we introduce a similarity loss that penalizes the pairwise sample distance. We show that our system outperforms the state-of-the-art in human motion prediction while it can predict diverse multi-motion future trajectories with hip movement

Algılanan Sınıf Ortamı, Temel Psikolojik İhtiyaçların Doyumu ve Öğrencilerin Akademik Duyguları: Temel Psikolojik İhtiyaçların Aracı Rolü

The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of basic psychological needs in the relationship between students’ perceptions of classroom environment and their academic emotions. A total of 268 students (137 males and 131 females) were selected from high schools located in Yasouj (Iran) via multistage cluster sampling. The participants filled out the Pekrun, Goetz, and Frenzel’s (2005) Achievement Emotions Questionnaire, Learning Environment Inventory, and Basic Needs Satisfaction. The proposed model was assessed by Structural Equation Model (SEM) using AMOS. Results indicated that the suggested model had a good fit with the empirical data. Furthermore, students’ perceptions of classroom environment had a positive and significant relationship with psychological needs satisfaction and academic emotions. In addition, satisfaction of basic psychological needs significantly and positively influenced academic emotions. Overall, findings demonstrated that satisfaction of basic psychological needs played a mediating role in the relationship between students’ perceptions of classroom environment and academic emotions.Araştırmanın amacı, öğrencilerin psikolojik ihtiyaçların doyumunun, algılanan sınıf ortamı ile akademik duyguları arasındaki ilişkide aracılık rolünü incelemektir. Bu amaçla, Yasouj şehrinde bulunan liselerden çok aşamalı küme örnekleme yöntemi ile 268 öğrenciden (137 erkek ve 131 kadın) oluşan bir örneklem seçilmiştir. Bu araştırmanın örnekleminde, Pekrun, Goetz ve Frenzel (2005) tarafından geliştirilen Başarı Duyguları Anketi, Öğrenme Ortamı Envanteri ve Temel İhtiyaçların Doyumu anketlerini uygulanmıştır. Önerilen model, AMOS yazılımı kullanılarak Yapısal Eşitlik Modeli ile değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular, önerilen modelin toplanan verilerle iyi uyum sağladığını göstermiştir. Buna ek olarak, algılanan sınıf ortamının, psikolojik ihtiyaçların doyumu ve akademik duygular üzerinde doğrudan pozitif yönde ve anlamlı etkisinin olduğu görülmüştür. Temel psikolojik ihtiyaçların doyum düzeyi ise akademik duyguları anlamlı ve pozitif yönde etkilemiştir. Genel olarak, araştırmanın bulguları temel psikolojik ihtiyaçların doyumunun algılanan sınıf ortamı ile akademik duygular arasındaki ilişkide (pozitif ve negatif) aracılık rolü oynadığını göstermiştir

Survey on Relationship between Goal Orientation and Learning Strategies with Academic Stress in University Students

AbstractThis study examine the relationship between goal orientation and learning strategies with academic stress in university students(150 male and 150 female) which were selected among 4 college by cluster sampling method. Goal orientation questionnaire (Button, Mathieu and Zajac, 1996) and learning strategies questionnaire (Pintrich and Degroot, 1990) and academic stress questionnaire (Gadzella, 1991) were used as the research instrument. Finding show that there was a positive meaningful relationship between learning goal orientation with learning strategies (cognitive and met cognitive) and academic stress. Also there was negative meaningful correlation between performance goal orientation and learning strategies (cognitive and Meta cognitive). These finding also reveals that learning strategies (cognitive and Meta cognitive) have negative meaningful correlation with academic stress. Finally findings displays that academic stress is predictable through linear regression of goal orientation component and learning strategies. So totally these variables were explained 9/6 percent of the variance of academic stress

Systematic Approaches to Identification of Dynamic Flux Balance Models

Mathematical modelling of biological systems is an essential tool for better understanding and for optimizing biological processes. Simulating the experiments before performing them is a time-saving strategy when seeking for optimal operating conditions. Dynamic flux balance analysis (DFBA) is a constraint-based dynamic modelling approach where the cell is assumed to act as an optimizing agent that allocates resources to maximize/minimize a suitable biological objective. In this modelling approach a linear programming (LP) problem is solved at each time interval involving the optimization of an objective function subject to constraints. This is a significantly different modelling approach than the one generally adopted for biochemical systems where dynamic mass balances are formulated for each metabolite. An important advantage of the dynamic metabolic flux models as compared to the more conventional models reported before is that DFBA models do not depend heavily on accurate kinetic information. The ultimate purpose of this research was to develop DFBA type models with a minimal number of parameters to fit and predict experimental data. Two main challenges had to be addressed: (i) - finding the biologically meaningful objective function that cells are trying to maximize/minimize and (ii) - finding a minimal set of limiting constraints. Limiting constraints includes any limit that potentially reduces the solution space such as kinetics, thermodynamics, gene expression, etc. The focus on this thesis was to develop algorithms to address these challenges in a systematic fashion. In the first published paper from this thesis (Chapter 5), I present two approaches for finding the kinetic constraints, an algorithm based on Lagrange multipliers and a parametric sensitivity algorithm. Both algorithms were applied using two case studies, one for E.coli that used a simplified metabolic network and a second for B. Pertussis with a more comprehensive metabolic network. Although both algorithms were capable of finding the constraints for the simple E.coli example, for the more complicated metabolic network used with B.Pertussis, the parametric sensitivity approach was found to be inefficient and numerically challenging. Thus, it was concluded that the Lagrange multiplier approach is preferable when considering metabolic networks of large dimensions. In the second paper published from this work (Chapter 6) I proposed a method for systematically and simultaneously finding the objective function and the limiting constraints necessary to describe data. To that aim, a set based approach that accounts for the errors in the experiments were proposed. Using this method both the active kinetic constraints and biological objective function were identified simultaneously using a bilinear optimization formulation. In the final stage of this research, the developed algorithms were applied for building a DFBA model for CHO cell culture (Chapter 9). We systematically found an objective function for mammalian cells that involve the simultaneous maximization of growth and minimization of apoptosis. We argued in this part of the work that this objective function correlates well with reported phenomena for CHO cells including the occurrence of the Warburg effect that involves the preferable conversion of glucose to lactate. In terms of experimental work we conducted an initial study to investigate the damaging effect of effect of CO2 accumulation on CHO cell culture. This preliminary study motivated us to develop a perfusion process for high cell density culture of CHO cells based on an ATF filtration system. In this development work we identified different challenges for effective perfusion operation and we propose some practical measures to address these challenges

The pro apoptotic effect of brittle Star dichloromethane extract on B16F10 melanoma cell line

     Cancer is the second important reason of mortality in the world. In this regard melanoma was accounted as the most aggressive type of coetaneous cancer. Among drug extracted from natural products from marine organisms have been focused investigations related to chemotherapeutic agents derived from echinoderms such as sea cucumbers and starfish.  In the present study, cytotoxic and apoptosis inducing potential of Persian Gulf Brittle Stars dichloromethane extract were evaluated against melanoma cancers. In this study, anti-proliferative effect of brittle stars Dichloromethane extract on B16F10 melanoma cells examined by MTT assay and morphological characterization and death inducing effect of Annexin-PI and PI flow cytometry. The data analysis was performed by SPSS software and p<0/05 were considered significant. The dichloromethane extract of brittle star revealed significant cytotoxic effect on B16F10 melanoma cells with IC50= 31 µg/ml which is stronger than inhibitory effect of methanol extract on melanoma cell growth. In addition, brittle star dichloromethane extract recruited apoptotic pathway in the response of 31 µg/ml treatment.  This study showed that certain concentrations of dichloromethane brittle stars possess cytotoxic activity that can be used as an anticancer agent used in clinical trial due to cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction which offer therapeutic investigations of dichloromethane brittle star extract as complementary for melanoma treatment and prevention

Cytotoxic effect of sea cucumber body wall extract (Holothuria arenicola) on melanoma Cancer

زمینه و هدف: خیار دریایی در اغلب اکوسیستم های دریایی جزء مهمی از اکوسیستم های آبی به شمار می آید. ملانوما به عنوان خطرناک ترین فرم سرطان پوست، مدتهای مدیدی است که بشر را تحت تاثیر قرار می دهد. در پژوهش حاضر اثر سیتوتوکسیک عصاره دیواره ی بدن خیار دریایی گونه Holothuria arenicolaبر روی سلولهای سرطانی ملانوما بررسی شده است. روش بررسی:در این پژوهش تجربی آزمایشگاهی رده ی سلولی ملانومای موشی در محیط کشتRPMI 1640(Roswell Park Memorial Institute)10 در دمای 37 درجه ی سانتیگراد و 5دی اکسید کربن کشت شدند. بعد از 24 ساعت سلولها با غلظت های مختلف عصاره ی تام دیواره ی بدن خیار دریایی (15، 31، 62، 125، 250 و 500 میکروگرم بر میلی لیتر) تیمار شدند. اثر سیتوتوکسیک عصاره خیار دریایی توسط روشMTT (3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide)،رنگ آمیزی اکریدین اورنج/ پروپودیوم ایداید،DAPI (4, 6- Diamidino-2-phenylindole)، فلوسیتومتری و آزمون کاسپاز 3و 9 بر سلولهای سرطانی ملانومای موشیمورد بررسی قرار گرفت و نتایج با استفاده از نرم افزارSPSS، آزمون آماری ANOVAتست دانکندر سطح p< 0.05 تحلیل شد. یافته ها: عصاره دیواره ی بدن خیار دریایی پس از 24 ساعت با(Inhibitory Concentration)IC5034میکروگرم بر میلی لیترو به طور معنی داری از طریق آپوپتوز موجب القاء سمیت سلولی بر سلولهای سرطان ملانومای موشی شد این عصاره در غلظت 62 میکروگرم بر میلی لیتر سمیت بیشتری را موجب شد طوری که در حدود 80 درصد سلول ها دچار آپوپتوز شدند. نتیجه گیری: یافته های ما نشان داد که عصاره تام دیواره ی بدن خیار دریایی با دارا بودن اثر سیتوتوکسیک و پیش برنده آپوپتوز بر رده سلولی ملانومای موشی ، کاندید مناسبی برای تحقیقات ضد سرطان است