Abstract: The present invention provides a method for culturing vascular smooth muscle cells, which includes culturing vascular smooth muscle cells in suspension in a medium composition comprising a structure capable of culturing cells or tissues by suspending them. In addition, the present invention provides a method for suppressing proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells, which includes culturing vascular smooth muscle cells in suspension in the medium composition. Furthermore, the present invention provides a method for preserving vascular smooth muscle cells, which includes suspending vascular smooth muscle cells in the medium composition. The structure contains, for example, deacylated gellan gum.

Abstract: The present invention provides a copolymer obtainable by polymerizing a monomer mixture which contains at least compounds of the following formulae (A), (B) and (C), wherein Ta, Tb, Tc, Ua1, Ua2, Ub1, Ub2 and Ub3, Qa, Qb and Qc, Ra, Rb and Rc, An? and m are as defined in Specification and Claims, and so on. The copolymer of the present invention can be utilized as an ion complex material excellent in a function of inhibiting adhesion of a biological substance.

Abstract: In a moving picture encoding apparatus, a primary candidate reference motion vector-setting unit sets N primary candidate reference motion vectors. A degree of reliability calculation unit calculates the reliability of each primary candidate reference motion vector, which represents effectiveness in predicting a motion vector of a block to be decoded, using coded or decoded image information. A reference motion vector determination unit selects M (M<N) secondary candidate reference motion vectors in accordance with degree of reliability from among the N primary candidate reference motion vectors. A motion vector prediction unit creates a predictive motion vector of a block to be coded using M secondary candidate reference motion vectors with high reliability.

Abstract: An object is to suppress an instantaneous increase in the computational complexity of an encoder and an information amount of an encoding result without increasing a delay even when input timing of input video is not constant and fluctuates. A frame rate control method for adjusting a frame rate of input video to a frame rate at which an encoder is able to perform encoding includes: a step of determining whether the number of pictures input in the past within a predetermined time from a time when a determination target picture of dropping is input exceeds a predetermined threshold value; and a step of discarding the determination target picture if the number of pictures exceeds the threshold value and designating the determination target picture as an encoding target if the number of pictures does not exceed the threshold value.

Abstract: In motion vector prediction encoding, the efficiency of motion vector prediction is improved and the efficiency of moving picture encoding is improved. A motion search is performed for a block to be encoded in a picture to be encoded using an encoded reference picture to calculate a motion vector. A plurality of blocks which include at least one of encoded blocks in the picture to be encoded and encoded blocks in an encoded picture and in predetermined positions relative to the position of the block to be encoded in the picture to be encoded are set as primary candidate blocks, and N primary candidate reference motion vectors are determined from motion vectors used in encoding the primary candidate blocks. The degrees of reliability of the primary candidate reference motion vectors which quantitatively represent effectiveness in motion vector prediction of the block to be encoded is calculated using encoded picture information for each of the primary candidate reference motion vectors.

Abstract: In picture encoding that generates prediction pictures from picture information of frames previously encoded and encodes picture information for each area, the encoding efficiency is improved. A plurality of motion vector candidates are stored in advance in a motion vector storage memory (107). A motion vector selection section (109) selects a motion vector to be used from the plurality of motion vectors stored in advance in the motion vector storage memory (107). A prediction picture generation section (104) generates a prediction picture from a reference picture using the selected motion vector. A differential encoding section (103) encodes a differential between the picture information of the present area and the prediction picture. A motion vector designation encoding section (110) encodes information that designates the motion vector selected by the motion vector selection section (109).

Abstract: The encoding computational complexity and the decoding computational complexity are reduced while suppressing deterioration of coding efficiency in comparison with conventional intra divided-picture coding. A divided picture generation unit divides an input encoding target picture into blocks having the same size, and collects pixels having the same relative position in the blocks to generate divided pictures having the same size. An intra divided-picture encoding unit performs intra divided-picture encoding on some divided pictures. A reference picture selection unit selects, as a reference picture, an encoded divided picture in which a pixel position on an original picture is close in order to encode the other encoding target divided pictures. An inter divided-picture predictive encoding unit generates a predicted picture using the selected reference picture and encodes an encoding target divided picture through inter divided-picture prediction in units of divided pictures.

Abstract: A video encoding device, which uses intra encoding and inter encoding with motion compensation with respect to an input video signal, includes a determination unit which determines whether the input video signal to be encoded corresponds to a stationary region, a region having minute motion, or a region having normal motion, a first encoding unit which performs inter encoding of a motion vector (0, 0) with respect to a region determined as a stationary region by the determination unit, a second encoding unit which performs motion search and inter encoding in a limited search range with respect to a region determined as a region having minute motion by the determination unit, and a third encoding unit which performs motion search and inter encoding in a normal search range with respect to a region determined as a region having normal motion by the determination unit.

Abstract: In picture encoding that generates prediction pictures from picture information of frames previously encoded and encodes picture information for each area, the encoding efficiency is improved. A plurality of motion vector candidates are stored in advance in a motion vector storage memory (107). A motion vector selection section (109) selects a motion vector to be used from the plurality of motion vectors stored in advance in the motion vector storage memory (107). A prediction picture generation section (104) generates a prediction picture from a reference picture using the selected motion vector. A differential encoding section (103) encodes a differential between the picture information of the present area and the prediction picture. A motion vector designation encoding section (110) encodes information that designates the motion vector selected by the motion vector selection section (109).

Abstract: An image encoding apparatus capable of reducing the computational complexity in intra-prediction of an encoding optimization process is provided. The image encoding apparatus includes a reference pixel generation unit that generates reference pixels from predicted pixels of neighboring pixels and pixels of an original image for intra-prediction directions, a pseudo intra-predicted pixel generation unit that generates pseudo intra-predicted pixels from the reference pixels and the intra-prediction directions, a coding cost calculation unit that calculates coding costs for the intra-prediction directions from errors between the pseudo intra-predicted pixels and the pixels of the original image and generated bit amounts when the pseudo intra-predicted pixels are generated, and an intra-prediction direction setting unit that sets an intra-prediction direction corresponding to the lowest coding cost among the coding costs as an optimal intra-prediction direction.

Abstract: Compared to conventional intra divided-picture encoding, deterioration in the coding efficiency is suppressed and the encoding computational complexity and the decoding computational complexity are reduced. A divided picture generating unit divides an input encoding target picture into blocks of the same size and generates divided pictures having the same size by collecting pixels having the same relative position within each block. An intra divided-picture encoding processing unit performs intra divided-picture encoding on part of the divided pictures. An inter divided-picture encoding processing unit performs inter divided-picture encoding using another encoded divided picture as a reference picture. When there are a plurality of candidates for the reference picture, a correlation direction calculating unit obtains a combination in which a correlation of a pixel on an original picture is high among combinations of encoded divided pictures and their reference pictures.

Abstract: The computational complexity when a block configuration in an encoding target region is determined is reduced while the degradation of coding efficiency is suppressed. A video encoding apparatus includes a block selecting unit which selects each of blocks obtained by recursively dividing an encoding target block as a target block in a predetermined sequence, a block size acquiring unit which acquires the smallest block size in an adjacent block for the selected target block, an evaluation value calculating unit which calculates an evaluation value of the target block if a block size of the target block matches any one of the acquired block size, the block size one level higher than the acquired block size, and the block size one level lower than the acquired block size, and a block configuration determining unit which determines a combination of the blocks constituting the region within the encoding target block based on the evaluation value.

Abstract: A video encoding control method for controlling encoding of an input video signal. The method includes the steps of detecting an underflow of a decoder buffer; if the underflow of the decoder buffer has been detected, suppressing an amount of generated code by skipping an encoding target picture or by encoding the encoding target picture so as to produce a minimum amount of generated code; after suppressing the amount of generated code, comparing a current rate of occupancy in the decoder buffer with a predetermined threshold for the rate of occupancy in the decoder buffer; and performing a control for continuously suppressing the amount of code generated for each encoding target image by using the above step of suppressing the amount of generated code until the rate of occupancy in the decoder buffer exceeds the threshold based on a result of the above comparison.

Abstract: In a video encoding control method of the present invention, each picture is encoded in units of encoding-order picture groups such as GOPs, and when CPB underflow has occurred, an encoding parameter such as a quantization parameter and filter strength of a pre-filter is changed in such a manner that a generated bit rate is reduced, and an encoding-order picture group that is being encoded is re-encoded from its first picture using the changed encoding parameter.

Abstract: A video encoding control method encodes an input video signal by controlling a generated bit rate so a hypothetical buffer in a decoder does not overflow or underflow includes: sequentially encoding each picture in an encoding-order picture group in accordance with a predetermined encoding parameter, the encoding-order picture group including a predetermined number of pictures and being a collection of successive pictures in the order of encoding; calculating a quantization statistic of each picture based on quantization parameter information used to encode each picture each time each picture is encoded, and checking whether the quantization statistic exceeds a predetermined threshold value, and if the quantization statistic exceeds the predetermined threshold value, changing the encoding parameter so the generated bit rate resulting from encoding is reduced and performing re-encoding from a first picture of an encoding-order picture group that is being encoded using the changed encoding parameter.

Abstract: A code amount control method used in a video encoding method for performing code amount control by estimating a generated code amount for an encoding target picture. The control method includes steps of computing a feature value of the encoding target picture and stores the value into a storage device; extracting a feature value of a previously-encoded picture stored in the storage device and used for generated code amount estimation; comparing the feature values of the encoding target picture and the previously-encoded picture; and a step performed according to a result of the comparison. If it is determined that difference between both feature values is larger than a predetermined criterion value, the amount of code generated for the encoding target picture is estimated using no result of encoding of the previously-encoded picture, and otherwise the relevant generated code amount is estimated based on a result of the encoding.

Abstract: A video encoding method for encoding a plurality of images as a video image. The method includes a reference parallax data setting step of setting reference parallax data which indicates a viewing difference between a first image and an already-encoded second image, in order to encode target encoding data assigned to a predetermined position in the first image; a corresponding position setting step of setting a corresponding position in the second image, which can correspond to the predetermined position, by using the reference parallax data; a code table setting step of setting a code table corresponding to target encoding data assigned to the corresponding position; and a target encoding data encoding step of encoding the target encoding data in the first image by using the code table.

Abstract: A video encoding method for generating, based on disparity information between an already-encoded reference camera image and an encoding target camera image corresponding to the reference camera image, a disparity-compensated image by means of inter-camera image prediction; and encoding a differential image between the encoding target camera image and the disparity-compensated image. The method includes selecting, for each predetermined section unit on the differential image, one of a decoded differential image group obtained by decoding a differential image between the already-encoded camera image and the disparity-compensated image and a decoded camera image group obtained by decoding the already-encoded camera image, by determining whether or not there is a disparity-compensated image at the corresponding position, that is, whether or not the corresponding pixel in the disparity-compensated image has an effective value.

Abstract: In an autoclave in a high pressure acid leaching process in which starting material slurry and sulfuric acid are stirred by stirring machines in each compartment in the autoclave partitioned by partition walls to proceed leaching, and slurry is transferred from a compartment on an upstream side to a compartment on a downstream side to sequentially proceed leaching, wherein starting material slurry supply tubes having the starting material slurry discharge ports and sulfuric acid supply tubes having sulfuric acid discharge ports are alternately disposed on a perimeter of stirring blades of the stirring machine provided in the compartment at an upstream end, and the starting material slurry and sulfuric acid are added to the compartment at the upstream end from the starting material slurry discharge ports and the sulfuric acid discharge ports positioned higher than an uppermost part of the stirring blades and lower than a contained liquid surface.

Abstract: In an intra-picture, a predetermined region is set as a normal encoding region, and a region other than the predetermined region is set as a simplified encoding region. In a subsequent picture, the normal encoding region is set as a larger region including a normal encoding region of a previous picture, and a region other than the normal encoding region is set as a simplified encoding region. In each picture, normal encoding is performed on a block of the normal encoding region, and simplified encoding in which a generated code amount and a computation amount are smaller than in the normal encoding is performed on a block of the simplified encoding region.