Accelerating BPC-PaCo through Visually Lossless Techniques

Fast image codecs are a current need in applications that deal with large amounts of images. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are suitable processors to speed up most kinds of algorithms, especially when they allow fine-grain parallelism. Bitplane Coding with Parallel Coefficient processing (BPC-PaCo) is a recently proposed algorithm for the core stage of wavelet-based image codecs tailored for the highly parallel architectures of GPUs. This algorithm provides complexity scalability to allow faster execution at the expense of coding efficiency. Its main drawback is that the speedup and loss in image quality is controlled only roughly, resulting in visible distortion at low and medium rates. This paper addresses this issue by integrating techniques of visually lossless coding into BPC-PaCo. The resulting method minimizes the visual distortion introduced in the compressed file, obtaining higher-quality images to a human observer. Experimental results also indicate 12% speedups with respect to BPC-PaCo.     

Motor fluency deficits in the sequencing of actions in schizophrenia.

Many everyday activities depend on the capacity to organize and smoothly execute motor sequences. The authors tested the hypothesis that a sequencing deficit is associated with schizophrenia. They used a new method to distinguish between lower and higher order mechanisms for the impairment. The 1st task involved triggered sequences in which sensory information from 1 movement was the cue for initiation of the following movement. Results showed that the motor sequences were performed as fluently in patients as in controls. The 2nd and 3rd tasks involved sequences in which the entire movement sequence could be preplanned. Patients executed the sequences less fluently than controls but only under the condition where action sequences were required. Furthermore, the patients' fluency deficit increased with sequence complexity. The high discrimination power of Task 3 gave the authors a means to control for a potential psychometric confound involving differential discriminating power and to argue in favor of a specific higher order motor fluency deficit in patients with schizophrenia. It is suggested that basic lower order mechanisms that integrate sensory information with outgoing motor commands are preserved in schizophrenia, whereas higher order integrative mechanisms that are required for the smooth coordination of motor sequences are impaired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simulation and optimization of tool-life in manufacturing centers

This paper presents the development of an optimization and a computer-simulation model to evaluate the process plans of a manufacturing center by analyzing the effect of tool failure on system performance. The GPSS/PC simulation program that is used in this study has been built with variables, functions and matrices so that many experiments could be conducted with the model. Sensitivity analysis is presented and the developed model has proven to be useful in determining optimum sequencing of parts for various operating policies.     

Progress toward roll-to-roll processing of inorganic monolithic electrochromic devices on polymeric substrates

As electrochromic device (ECD) emerges into the market, the necessity of cost reduction via high-throughput manufacturing is unavoidable. Inorganic monolithic ECD has compatibility in its manufacturing steps, allows continuous processing and hence low-cost ECD. A roll-to-roll (R2R) production is the industrial standard for high-throughput processing and was chosen to synthesize ECD on polymeric substrates. Preliminary success by implementing methods compatible to the aforementioned R2R processing has been achieved; however, continuous test-runs on an R2R machine are still limited.     

II. Yeast sequencing reports. Sequence of a segment of yeast chromosome II shows two novel genes,one almost entirely hydrophobic and the other extremely asparagine-serine rich

A 3·2 kb EcoRI fragment of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was entirely sequenced. Two new open reading frames were identified. The first is extremely hydrophobic, and would likely be an integral membrane protein. It has significant similarity to only one reported gene, a gene of unknown function from Drosophila melanogaster. The second ORF is asparagine-rich and very serine-rich, with a remarkable stretch of nearly 26 consecutive asparagine residues comprised of the same codon. It has no significant similarity to any reported gene. The fragment maps to chromosome II on the left arm between the CDC27 and ILS1 loci. The nucleotide sequence reported in this paper has been deposited in the GenBank database with the Accession Number M89908.     

战役战术导弹目标价值排序的模糊综合评判法

针对现代战争中战役战术导弹运用的特点，确定了战役战术导弹所打击目标价值的评判指标体系，并从分析目标价值的角度出发，用模糊综合评判法对战役战术导弹所打击目标进行价值分析，建立了打击先后顺序的评判模型．最后，用实例证明了，评判模型对战役战术导弹所打击目标进行价值排序的实用性和可行性。     

Minimizing the number of tool switches on a flexible machine

This article analyzes a tool switching problem arising in certain flexible manufacturing environments. A batch of jobs have to be successively processed on a single flexible machine. Each job requires a subset of tools, which have to be placed in the tool magazine of the machine before the job can be processed. The tool magazine has a limited capacity, and, in general, the number of tools needed to produce all the jobs exceeds this capacity. Hence, it is sometimes necessary to change tools between two jobs in a sequence. The problem is then to determine a job sequence and an associated sequence of loadings for the tool magazine, such that the total number of tool switches is minimized. This problem has been previously considered by several authors; it is here revisited, both from a theoretical and from a computational viewpoint. Basic results concerning the computational complexity of the problem are established. Several heuristics are proposed for its solution, and their performance is computationally assessed.