Abstract: A piston limiting structure, including: a cylinder, a piston, and a flange provided with a limiting piece, the cylinder has a piston hole perpendicular to an axial direction of the cylinder and penetrating through the cylinder, and a projection of the piston hole in a penetrating direction is circular. The piston is disposed in the piston hole in a form-fit manner and is slid in the piston hole in a reciprocating manner. A side wall of the piston is provided with a thrust groove, a bottom surface of the thrust groove forms a thrust surface on the side wall of the piston, and the thrust groove does not penetrate through two ends of the side wall of the piston along an axial length of the piston. The limiting piece abuts against the thrust surface.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an organic semiconducting compound and organic optoelectronic components using the same. The organic semiconducting compound own a novel chemical structure. By using the organic semiconducting compound to prepare organic optoelectronic compounds, environmentally friendly non-halogen solvent can be used. In addition, the photoresponsivity and detectivity are excellent in the near-infrared region.

Abstract: Unstructured data items are stored at an object storage service. A filtering requirement to be used to generate a result set for an access request is determined. Using a transformed representation of the filtering requirement, a target set of tokens of the filtering requirement which are to be obfuscated within a log record is identified. A log record that comprises substitute tokens for the target set of tokens is generated and stored.

Abstract: A method for adjusting the uniformity of a display is provided. The method includes the following steps. An angle sensor is disposed on a display. The display opposite to a measurement device is disposed on a rotation axis. The uniformity of a frame of the display at at least one use angle is measured by the measurement device, wherein the display is adjusted to a first use angle and is left still for a period of time, so that the uniformity of the display arranged at the first use angle has a first uniformity correction parameter; and a correspondence table relevant to the first use angle and the first uniformity correction parameter is stored to the display.

Abstract: Unstructured data items are stored at an object storage service. A filtering requirement to be used to generate a result set for an access request is determined. Using a transformed representation of the filtering requirement, a target set of tokens of the filtering requirement which are to be obfuscated within a log record is identified. A log record that comprises substitute tokens for the target set of tokens is generated and stored.

Abstract: Unstructured data items are stored at an object storage service. A filtering requirement to be used to generate a result set for an access request is determined. Using a transformed representation of the filtering requirement, a target set of tokens of the filtering requirement which are to be obfuscated within a log record is identified. A log record that comprises substitute tokens for the target set of tokens is generated and stored.

Abstract: Unstructured data items are stored at an object storage service. A filtering requirement to be used to generate a result set for an access request is determined. Using a transformed representation of the filtering requirement, a target set of tokens of the filtering requirement which are to be obfuscated within a log record is identified. A log record that comprises substitute tokens for the target set of tokens is generated and stored.

Abstract: Unstructured data items are stored in an item collection. An access request comprising an input interpretation rule and a filtering criterion is directed to at least a portion of the item collection. Records are extracted from an unstructured data item using the input interpretation rule. A response to the access request is obtained, based at least partly in a determination that one of the records satisfies the filtering criterion.

Abstract: Unstructured data items are stored at an object storage service. A filtering criterion to be used to generate a result set for an access request is determined. A test that can be used to determine, without completing parsing of a record identified in an unstructured data item, whether the record satisfies the filtering criterion is identified. Parsing of a particular record is abandoned in response to determining, using the test, that the record satisfies the filtering criterion. A response to the access request is determined using a subset of records that satisfy the filtering criterion.

Abstract: To estimate content complexity of a video, energy of prediction residuals is calculated. The prediction residuals are usually smaller when the video is less complex and more predictable. Scales of prediction residuals also depend on encoding configurations, for example, I pictures usually have larger prediction residuals than P and B pictures even when the contents are very similar and thus have similar perceived content complexity. To more closely reflect the content complexity, alignment scaling factors are estimated for different encoding configurations. Based on the energy of prediction residuals and alignment scaling factors, an overall content unpredictability parameter can be estimated to compute a compression distortion factor for the video. The compression distortion factor, combined with slicing and freezing distortion factors, can be used to estimate a video quality metric for the video.

Abstract: Methods and systems for scheduling wake/sleep cycles by a central device in a wireless network that have at least one mobile device include determining a system reference cycle as a minimum value of a delay constraint on a real-time service for each mobile device of the at least one mobile device that has a real-time service. A wake/sleep cycle length is attributed to each mobile device. The wake/sleep cycle length is an integer multiple of the system reference cycle such that a wake/sleep cycle length of a first mobile device is different from that of a second mobile device. A sleep period and a wake period are assigned within the wake/sleep cycle of each mobile device. The wake/sleep cycle of each mobile device is arranged to avoid collision of the wake period with those of other mobile devices.

Abstract: A particular implementation receives a bitstream and derives parameters from the bitstream. The parameters include quantization parameters, content unpredictability parameters, ratios of lost blocks, ratios of propagated blocks, error concealment distances, motion vectors, durations of freezing, and frame rates. Using these parameters, a compression distortion factor, a slicing distortion factor, and a freezing distortion factor are estimated respectively for distortions resulting from video compression, a slicing mode error concealment, and a freezing slicing mode error concealment. The distortion factors are then mapped to a composite video quality score. For applications with limited computational power, the estimation of distortion factors can be simplified. In particular, the compression distortion factor, the slicing distortion factor, and the freezing distortion factor can be predicted from quantization parameters, ratios of lost blocks, and durations of freezing, respectively.

Abstract: Accuracy and efficiency of video quality measurement are major problems to be solved. According to the invention, a method for accurately predicting video quality uses a rational function of the quantization parameter QP, which is corrected by a correction function that depends on content unpredictability CU. Exemplarily, the correction function is a power function of the CU. Both QP and CU can be computed from the video elementary stream, without full decoding the video. This ensures high efficiency.

Abstract: The present invention provides a QoE (Quality of Experience) management solution, wherein QoE feedback is used to optimize the usage of QoS provisioning techniques, thus improving the utilization efficiency of network resources. According to one aspect of the invention, a method for QoE management for a network service provided to a user device, the method comprising: displaying a user interface on the user device for a user to input an expected QoE value of the network service; receiving the expected QoE value of the network service from the user; evaluating an objective QoE value of the network service as a function of network QoS parameters; and adjusting the QoS parameters of the network service if the objective QoE value is less than the expected QoE value.

Abstract: A system for making a three dimensional ice sculpture has a movable print head and fan mounted in a refrigerated enclosure. The print head has an inlet connected to a source of chilled water and can spray dyed or undyed water at a platform. A controller can move the print head and regulate its water outflow. A fluid can be discharged into the sprayed water at a temperature that accommodates ice formation. The sprayed water forms successive layers that freeze.

Abstract: A macroblock in a video sequence may be undecodable because the corresponding compressed data is lost or the syntax is out of synchronization. An undecodable macroblock may be concealed using error concealment technique. The level of initial visible artifacts caused by undecodable macroblocks may be estimated as a function of motion magnitude, error concealment distance, and/or residual energy. The initial visible artifacts may propagate spatially or temporally to other macroblocks through prediction. Considering both initial visible artifacts and propagated artifacts, levels of overall artifacts may be estimated for individual macroblocks. The visual quality for the video sequence can then be estimated by pooling the macroblock level artifact levels.

Abstract: Because neighboring frames may affect how a current frame is perceived, we examine different neighborhoods of the current frame and select a neighborhood that impacts the perceived temporal distortion (i.e., when frames are viewed continuously) of the current frame most significantly. Based on spatial distortion (i.e., when a frame is viewed independently of other frames in a video sequence) of frames in the selected neighborhood, we can estimate initial temporal distortion. To refine the initial temporal distortion, we also consider the distribution of distortion in the selected neighborhood, for example, the distance between the current frame and a closest frame with large distortion, or whether distortion occurs in consecutive frames.

Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus for detecting a gradual transition picture in a bitstream. The method comprises: accessing a bitstream including encoded pictures; and determining a gradual transition picture in the bitstream using information from the bitstream without decoding the bitstream to derive pixel information.

Abstract: Spatial distortion (i.e., when a frame is viewed independently of other frames in a video sequence) may be quite different from temporal distortion (i.e., when frames are viewed continuously). To estimate temporal distortion, a sliding window approach is used. Specifically, multiple sliding windows around a current frame are considered. Within each sliding window, a large distortion density is calculated and a sliding window with the highest large distortion density is selected. A distance between the current frame and the closest frame with large distortion in the selected window is calculated. Subsequently, the temporal distortion is estimated as a function of the highest large distortion ratio, the spatial distortion for the current frame, and the distance. In another embodiment, a median of spatial distortion values is calculated for each sliding window and the maximum of median spatial distortion values is used to estimate the temporal distortion.

Abstract: Methods and systems for scheduling wake/sleep cycles by a central device in a wireless network that have at least one mobile device include determining a system reference cycle as a minimum value of a delay constraint on a real-time service for each mobile device of the at least one mobile device that has a real-time service. A wake/sleep cycle length is attributed to each mobile device. The wake/sleep cycle length is an integer multiple of the system reference cycle such that a wake/sleep cycle length of a first mobile device is different from that of a second mobile device. A sleep period and a wake period are assigned within the wake/sleep cycle of each mobile device. The wake/sleep cycle of each mobile device is arranged to avoid collision of the wake period with those of other mobile devices.