Temporal video transcoding from H.264/AVC-to-SVC for digital TV broadcasting

Mobile digital TV environments demand flexible video compression like scalable video coding (SVC) because of varying bandwidths and devices. Since existing infrastructures highly rely on H.264/AVC video compression, network providers could adapt the current H.264/AVC encoded video to SVC. This adaptation needs to be done efficiently to reduce processing power and operational cost. This paper proposes two techniques to convert an H.264/AVC bitstream in Baseline (P-pictures based) and Main Profile (B-pictures based) without scalability to a scalable bitstream with temporal scalability as part of a framework for low-complexity video adaptation for digital TV broadcasting. Our approaches are based on accelerating the interprediction, focusing on reducing the coding complexity of mode decision and motion estimation tasks of the encoder stage by using information available after the H. 264/AVC decoding stage. The results show that when our techniques are applied, the complexity is reduced by 98 % while maintaining coding efficiency

On the impact of video stalling and video quality in the case of camera switching during adaptive streaming of sports content

The widespread usage of second screens, in combination with mobile video streaming technologies like HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS), enable new means for taking end-users' Quality of Experience (QoE) to the next level. For sports events, these technological evolutions can, for example, enhance the overall engagement of remote fans or give them more control over the content. In this paper, we consider the case of adaptively streaming multi-camera sports content to tablet devices, enabling the end-user to dynamically switch cameras. Our goal is to subjectively evaluate the trade-off between video stalling duration (as a result of requesting another camera feed) and initial video quality of the new feed. Our results show that short video stallings do not significantly influence overall quality ratings, that quality perception is highly influenced by the video quality at the moment of camera switching and that large quality fluctuations should be avoided

Achtergrondstudie bij de subsidies voor de biologische land- en tuinbouw in Vlaanderen

In opdracht van de Vlaamse overheid heeft het Louis Bolk Instituut, samen met het Instituut voor landbouw- en visserijonderzoek (ILVO), een studie uitgevoerd naar de bedrijfseconomische gevolgen van de omschakeling van gangbare naar biologische landbouw. Aanleiding voor de studie waren een mogelijke herziening van de hoogte van de overheidssubsidie die biologische landbouwers in Vlaanderen hiervoor ontvangen en het geringe aantal omschakelende agrariërs. Conclusie van de studie is dat voor veel bedrijven omschakeling naar biologische landbouw een rendabel alternatief kan vormen. De studie bevestigt tevens een aantal fundamentele kwetsbaarheden en obstakels. Transitiekosten (het vergaren van nieuwe kennis en marktcontacten, de afzet van de producten en voor sommige bedrijven desinvesteringen tijdens de overgangsperiode) kunnen een groot obstakel vormen voor omschakeling omdat deze transitiekosten pas na vele jaren worden terugverdiend. Daarnaast kan het risico op marktfalen goed bedrijfsresultaat in de weg staan. Deze kwetsbaarheden en obstakels manifesteren zich vooral op bedrijfsniveau waardoor ze moeilijker toewijsbaar worden naar teeltniveau. Een van de aanbevelingen is daarom om (ook) instrumenten te ontwikkelen die de overgangskosten en het risico op marktfalen verminderen. Doordat omschakeling voor veel bedrijven een aantrekkelijke optie lijkt en belangrijke kostencomponenten zich vooral op bedrijfsniveau manifesteren is een blijvende en op hectarebasis teruggebrachte ondersteuningspremie voor biologische landbouw nog slechts beperkt te verantwoorden. Aangezien prijzen continue wisselen en de beschikbaarheid van betrouwbare gegevens beperkt is, is ook een ‘beslissingsondersteunend rekenmodel’ opgeleverd waarmee berekeningen gemakkelijk later opnieuw gedaan kunnen worden

Financial phantasmagoria: corporate image-work in times of crisis

Our purpose in this article is to relate the real movements in the economy during 2008 to the ?image-work? of financial institutions. Over the period January?December 2008 we collected 241 separate advertisements from 61 financial institutions published in the Financial Times. Reading across the ensemble of advertisements for themes and evocative images provides an impression of the financial imaginaries created by these organizations as the global financial crisis unfolded. In using the term ?phantasmagoria? we move beyond its colloquial sense of a set of strange images designed to dazzle towards the more technical connotation used by Ranci�re (2004) who suggested that words and images can offer a trace of an overall determining set-up if they are torn from their obviousness so they become phantasmagoric figures. The key phantasmagoric figure we identify here is that of the financial institution as timeless, immortal and unchanging; a coherent and autonomous entity amongst other actors. This notion of uniqueness belies the commonality of thinking which precipitated the global financial crisis as well as the limited capacity for control of financial institutions in relation to market events. It also functions as a powerful naturalizing force, making it hard to question certain aspects of the recent period of ?capitalism in crisis?

Biopython: freely available Python tools for computational molecular biology and bioinformatics

Summary: The Biopython project is a mature open source international collaboration of volunteer developers, providing Python libraries for a wide range of bioinformatics problems. Biopython includes modules for reading and writing different sequence file formats and multiple sequence alignments, dealing with 3D macro molecular structures, interacting with common tools such as BLAST, ClustalW and EMBOSS, accessing key online databases, as well as providing numerical methods for statistical learning. Availability: Biopython is freely available, with documentation and source code at www.biopython.org under the Biopython license. Contact: All queries should be directed to the Biopython mailing lists, see www.biopython.org/wiki/[email protected]