Deep Multiple Description Coding by Learning Scalar Quantization

In this paper, we propose a deep multiple description coding framework, whose quantizers are adaptively learned via the minimization of multiple description compressive loss. Firstly, our framework is built upon auto-encoder networks, which have multiple description multi-scale dilated encoder network and multiple description decoder networks. Secondly, two entropy estimation networks are learned to estimate the informative amounts of the quantized tensors, which can further supervise the learning of multiple description encoder network to represent the input image delicately. Thirdly, a pair of scalar quantizers accompanied by two importance-indicator maps is automatically learned in an end-to-end self-supervised way. Finally, multiple description structural dissimilarity distance loss is imposed on multiple description decoded images in pixel domain for diversified multiple description generations rather than on feature tensors in feature domain, in addition to multiple description reconstruction loss. Through testing on two commonly used datasets, it is verified that our method is beyond several state-of-the-art multiple description coding approaches in terms of coding efficiency.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. (DCC 2019: Data Compression Conference). Testing datasets for "Deep Optimized Multiple Description Image Coding via Scalar Quantization Learning" can be found in the website of https://github.com/mdcnn/Deep-Multiple-Description-Codin

Transportation, Cooperation and Harmonization: GATS as a Gateway to Integrating the UN Seaborne Cargo Regimes into the WTO

This paper seeks to analyze how the World Trade Organization (WTO) may cooperate with the United Nations (UN) to unify sea-borne cargo regimes. Beginning with the current dilemma of uni-form maritime transport regime, the paper explores the relation-ship between the UN and the WTO. In light of the successful precedent of the incorporation of the UN intellectual property re-gime into the WTO, this paper probes into the feasibility that the UN and the WTO may interactively unify a maritime transport regime by reference to selected previous treaties, which include UN-administrated treaties. This paper argues the WTO-based sea transport negotiations do not start from a zero basis so that it can be traced backwards to negotiating the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Having scrutinized the progress and regress in the negotiations so far under the WTO framework, this paper stresses the potential role of an annex on sea transport to the GATS so as to address the issue of harmonization

Survey on the uniformity of seaborne cargo conventions: need to limit the scope of uniformity

In order to examine differences in their understandings of the UN latest uniform sea-cargo rules - the Rotterdam Rules, this survey was conducted among Chinese and some European maritime professionals. The Rotterdam Rules were diversely understood and could cause a further reduction in uniformity. The current commercial shipping realities call for updating legal regimes with regard to electronic commerce and multimodal transport. The Rotterdam Rules attempted to update the legal regimes in accordance with the commercial realities, but were problematic and jeopardize uniform understandings of them and wide ratification