Pellet: A practical OWL-DL reasoner

In this paper, we present a brief overview of Pellet: a complete OWL-DL reasoner with acceptable to very good performance, extensive middleware, and a number of unique features. Pellet is the first sound and complete OWL-DL reasoner with extensive support for reasoning with individuals (including nominal support and conjunctive query), user-defined datatypes, and debugging support for ontologies. It implements several extensions to OWL-DL including a combination formalism for OWL-DL ontologies, a non-monotonic operator, and preliminary support for OWL/Rule hybrid reasoning. Pellet is written in Java and is open source.     

Cross-Layer Architecture for Adaptive Video Multicast Streaming Over Multirate Wireless LANs

Multicast video streaming over multirate wireless LANs imposes strong demands on video codecs and the underlying network. It is not sufficient that only the video codec or only the underlying protocols adapt to changes in the wireless link quality. Research efforts should be applied in both and in a synchronized way. Cross layer design is a new paradigm that addresses this challenge by optimizing communication network architectures across traditional layer boundaries. This paper presents cross-layer architecture for adaptive video multicast streaming over multirate wireless LANs where layer-specific information is passed in both directions, top-down and bottom-up. The authors jointly consider three layers of the protocol stack: the application, data link and physical layers. The authors analyze the performance of the proposed architecture and extensively evaluate it via simulations. The results show that the real-time video quality of the overall system can be greatly improved by cross-layer signaling.     

Size‐controlled gold nanoparticles inside polyacrylamide microgels

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different sizes were synthesized into a crosslinked network of polyacrylamide (PAAm) microgels. PAAm was prepared by means of semicontinuous inverse heterophase polymerization under monomer‐starving conditions with a z‐average particle size of 384 ± 18 nm. AuNPs with controlled size were obtained by a reduction reaction of Au⁺³ to Au⁰ from a gold(III) chloride trihydrate (HAuCl₄) solution inside microgel the crosslinked network (AuNP‐PAAm). The reduction reaction was verified for 2 h by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis). AuNP–PAAm exhibited a particle size between 288 ± 12 and 230 ± 15 nm at HAuCl₄ concentrations of 0.4 and 1.3 mM, respectively. The AuNP–PAAms were observed by transmission electron microscopy, and their sizes were determined to be 19 ± 2 nm (1.3 mM) and 17 ± 2 nm (1.1 mM). With UV–vis spectroscopy, we detected the formation of AuNPs at a wavelength of 552 nm, and with X‐ray diffraction analysis, we proved that the crystal arrangement was face‐centered cubic. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43560.     

Video Compression for Screen Recorded Sequences Following Eye Movements

With the advent of smartphones and tablets, video traffic on the Internet has increased enormously. With this in mind, in 2013 the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard was released with the aim of reducing the bit rate (at the same quality) by 50% with respect to its predecessor. However, new contents with greater resolutions and requirements appear every day, making it necessary to further reduce the bit rate. Perceptual video coding has recently been recognized as a promising approach to achieving high-performance video compression and eye tracking data can be used to create and verify these models. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for the bit rate reduction of screen recorded sequences based on the visual perception of videos. An eye tracking system is used during the recording to locate the fixation point of the viewer. Then, the area around that point is encoded with the base quantization parameter (QP) value, which increases when moving away from it. The results show that up to 31.3% of the bit rate may be saved when compared with the original HEVC-encoded sequence, without a significant impact on the perceived quality.

     

Acceleration of the integer motion estimation in JEM through pre-analysis techniques

The Journal of Supercomputing - ITU-T Video Coding Expert Group and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Expert Group are studying the potential need for standardization of the future video coding technology...     

Integrating software and hardware hierarchies in an autotuning method for parallel routines in heterogeneous clusters

The Journal of Supercomputing - A hierarchical approach for autotuning linear algebra routines on heterogeneous platforms is presented. Hierarchy helps to alleviate the difficulties of tuning...     

Chemically modified resistant starch in breadmaking: Impact on bone,mineral metabolism and gut health of growing Wistar rats

The effect of chemically modified resistant starch (RS) included in bread formulation on bone and gut health of growing male Wistar rats was studied. In order to determine the functional properties and the prebiotic potential of RS, three groups of rats were assayed: a control group (CD), a group fed with a diet including RS (RSD) and a group fed with a diet containing bread with RS (BRSD). Rats that consumed BRSD exhibited lower daily intake indicating that more satiety is reached with this food and this group presented similar calcium absorption than control rats. In addition, an increase in bone mineral content and bone mineral density and better intestinal balance as reflected by higher lactobacilli/enterobacteria ratio was observed in rats fed with both sources of RS. Thus, these results show a prebiotic role of RS that is maintained when RS is included in a bread formulation.