Radiofrequency ablation combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for recurrent liver cancer

BACKGROUND The recurrence rate of liver cancer after surgery is high.Radiofrequency ablation(RFA)combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization(TACE)is an effective treatment for liver cancer;however,its efficacy in recurrent liver cancer remains unclear.AIM To investigate the clinical effect of TACE combined with RFA in the treatment of recurrent liver cancer.METHODS Ninety patients with recurrent liver cancer were divided into 2 groups according to treatment plan:Control(RFA alone);and experimental[TACE combined with RFA(TACE+RFA)].The incidence of increased alanine aminotransferase levels,complications,and other indices were compared between the two groups before and after the procedures.RESULTS One month after the procedures,the short-term efficacy rate and Karnofsky Performance Status scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group(P<0.05).Alpha-fetoprotein(AFP)and total bilirubin levels were lower than those in the control group(P<0.05);The overall response rate was 82.22%and 66.67%in the experimental and control groups,respectively;The disease control rate was 93.33%and 82.22%in the experimental and control groups,respectively,the differences are statistically significant(P<0.05).And there were no statistical differences in complications between the two groups(P>0.05).CONCLUSION TACE+RFA was effective for the treatment of recurrent liver cancer and significantly reduced AFP levels and improved various indices of liver function.

Screening, Treatment and Control of High Blood Pressure on Five Sites in Mali

Introduction: High blood pressure is defined as blood pressure greater than or equal to 140 mm Hg for systolic and or 90 mm Hg for diastolic. It constitutes a major public health problem, the leading chronic disease in the world. The objective was to determine the prevalence, treatment rate and control of hypertension. Methods: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive study which took place over a period of 6 months in a hospital environment and in the general population. Results: Of the 1000 participants, 637 had hypertension, giving a prevalence of 63.70% with a female predominance. Thirty-three percent (33%) were unaware of their high blood pressure. The age group 60 and more was the most represented (44%). A proportion of 33 and 23.20 were overweight and obese participants, respectively. Male subjects were more overweight than female, unlike obesity which was more common among female subjects. Sixty-two percent (62%) of hypertensives were treated, of whom 44% were non-compliant. The excessively high cost and consumption of medications as needed were the main factors in therapeutic non-compliance. Twenty-two percent (22%) of all hypertensive patients and 35% of treated hypertensive patients were controlled. Women were more treated but less observant and less controlled than men. Therapeutic coverage and combination therapy rates were lower in rural areas. Hypertensives who had a high level of education were better treated and controlled than those who had no level. Conclusion: High blood pressure remains a real public health problem in Mali. It is more common in people aged 60 and over and in females. One in three hypertensives were unaware of their hypertension. The majority received antihypertensive treatments, but only a minority of them had their hypertension controlled.

A rate control scheme for H.264 video under low bandwidth channel

The dilemma of the quantization parameter (QP) being involved in both rate control and rate-distortion optimization (RDO) prevents using the traditional rate control scheme. Although some rate control schemes are proposed to circumvent the dilemma, the inaccurate prediction model and improper bit allocation deter H.264 application on low bandwidth channel. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a novel rate control scheme by considering the macroblock (MB) encoding complexity variation and buffer variation and by exploiting the spatio-temporal correlation sufficiently well. Simulations showed that this scheme improves the perceptual quality of the pictures with similar or smaller PSNR deviations when compared to that of rate control in JVT-O016.

RATE CONTROL ALGORITHM FOR H.264 VIDEO ENCODER

This letter proposes a rate control algorithm for H.264 video encoder, which is based on block activity and buffer state. Experimental results indicate that it has an excellent performance by providing much accurate bit rate and better coding efficiency compared with H.264. The computational complexity of the algorithm is reduced by adopting a novel block activity description method using the Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD) of 16× 16 mode, and its robustness is enhanced by introducing a feedback circuit at frame layer.

Rate Control Algorithm of Wireless Video Based on Visual Saliency Map Model

In order to further improve the efficiency of video compression, we introduce a perceptual characteristics of Human Visual System (HVS) to video coding, and propose a novel video coding rate control algorithm based on human visual saliency model in H.264/AVC. Firstly, we modifie Itti's saliency model. Secondly, target bits of each frame are allocated through the correlation of saliency region between the current and previous frame, and the complexity of each MB is modified through the saliency value and its Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) value. Lastly, the algorithm was implemented in JVT JM12.2. Simulation results show that, comparing with traditional rate control algorithm, the proposed one can reduce the coding bit rate and improve the reconstructed video subjective quality, especially for visual saliency region. It is very suitable for wireless video transmission.

In-Network Puncturing for Delay-Efficient Rate Control of Distributed Video Coding in Wireless Video Sensor Networks

Wyner-Ziv Video Coding （WZVC） is considered as a promising video coding scheme for Wireless Video Sensor Networks （WVSNs） due to its high compression efficiency and error resilience functionalities, as well as its low encoding complex- ity. To achieve a good Rate-Distortion （R-D） per- formance, the current WZVC paradi^prls usually a- dopt an end-to-end rate control scheme in which the decoder repeatedly requests the additional deco- ding data from the encoder for decoding Wyner-Ziv frames. Therefore, the waiting time of the additional decoding data is especially long in multihop WVSNs. In this paper, we propose a novel pro- gressive in-network rate control scheme for WZVC. The proposed in-network puncturing-based rate control scheme transfers the partial channel codes puncturing task from the encoder to the relay nodes. Then, the decoder can request the addition- al decoding data from the relay nodes instead of the encoder, and the total waiting time for deco- ding Wyner-Ziv frames is reduced consequently. Simulation results validate the proposed rate con- trol scheme.

Efficient Rate Control for Motion JPEG2000 under Constraint Memory

Fine scalability can provide not only precise rate control for constant bitrate (CBR) traffic, but also accurate quality control for variable bitrate (VBR) traffic. Motion JPEG2000 is a codec that can provide fine scalability with bitstreams. An efficient rate control approach utilizing a single buffer and two kinds of threshold for Motion JPEG2000 under resource constraint was proposed, which can offer good result in the constant quality video.

Equation based rate control scheme for video streaming over wireless channels with link level ARQ

Equation based TCP-friendly rate control (TFRC) protocol has been proposed to support video streaming applications. In order to improve TFRC performance in wireless channels, the link level automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme is usually deployed. However, ARQ cannot ensure strict delay guarantees, especially over multihop links. This paper introduces a theoretical model to deduce an equation for packet size adjustment in transport layer to minimize retransmission delay by taking into con- sideration the causative reasons inducing retransmission in link layer. An enhanced TFRC (ETFRC) scheme is proposed inte- grating TFRC with variable packet size policy. Simulation results demonstrate that higher goodput, lower packet loss rate (PLR), lower frame transmission delay and jitter with good fairness can be achieved by our proposed mechanism.

Adaptive rate control on wireless transcoder

To guarantee the real-time transmission of a video stream, based on the stochastic optimal control method, a frame layer adaptive rate control algorithm for the wireless transcoder is proposed, which is capable of dynamically determining the transcoder＇s objective bit rate, according to the bandwidth variation of the wireless channel and the buffer occupancy. Then the transient performance, steady performance, and computational complexity of the algorithm are analyzed. Finally, the experiment results demonstrate that the algorithm can improve the synthetic performance of rate control through the compromise between the end-to-end delay and the playout quality.

An Improvement of MPEG-4 Rate Control Algorithm

Frame skipping in low bit video coding could significantly reduce the visual quality of reconstructed video. At the same time, if the complexity of the video sequence remains high for a long period, then driving up the long term average bit rate, the only resort of MPEG-4 Q2 rate control algorithm results in using a high quantization scale, which shows a poor visual quality of the reconstructed video. This paper analyzes the main causes of frame skipping in current MPEG-4 frame rate control scheme, and presents a new rate control algorithm based on the quadratic R-D model over a CBR channel. Key features of the present work are: 1) the bits allocated to each P-frame or B-frame are in proportion to its distance from the end of this GOP, i.e. more bits are allocated to the frames that are nearer to their reference Ⅰ-frame; 2) the target buffer level is changeable in the GOP, at the end of each GOP(five P-frames or B-frames), the target buffer level is linearly reduced from 1/2 to 1/4 of buffer size, to other frames, the target buffer level is set to 1/2 of buffer size; 3) a selective and judicious use of the reduced resolution mode, in addition to a modulation of the quantization scale parameter, is to control the average long term bit rate. Experimental results with different video sequences of varied complexity, encoded at low bit rates show better efficacy of the proposed algorithm than MPEG-4 Q2 rate control scheme, and the experimental results also show that the improved algorithm has significantly reduced the number of frame skipping, increased the overall PSNR, and improved the perceptual quality.

Efficient Rate Control Algorithm for Multi-view Video Coding

Rate control is one of the key factors influencing the multi-view video transmission.However,there is not a rate control algorithm in the existing Joint Multi-view Video Coding Model.In this paper,an efficient rate control algorithm and a bit allocation strategy for multi-view video coding are proposed.In order to obtain the consistent view quality,a bit allocation model based on the Lagrange optimum algorithm is firstly proposed.Secondly,considering the encoding statistical characteristics of different view types,a view weighting factor is introduced,and it will help improve the precision of bit allocation among views.Compared with the fixed QP control strategy,experiment results show that the proposed algorithm can efficiently control the bit rate and obtain more consistent views,with video visual quality improved.

Optimal source rate control for adapting VBR video over CBR channels

In this paper we discuss the source rate control problem of adapting variable bit-rate （VBR） compressed video over constant bit-rate （CBR） channels. Firstly we formulate it as an optimal control problem of a discrete linear system with state and control constraints. Then we apply the discrete maximum principle to get the optimal solution. Experimental results are given in the end. Compared with traditional algorithms, the proposed algorithm is suitable for the coder with continuous output rates, and can achieve the better solution. Our algorithm can be used in both off-line and on-line coding.

An Improved Rate Control Method Based on Modification at Scene Change for H.264

This paper presents an improved rate control method for H.264. First, the scene changes are detected by the average absolute difference of the brightness histograms between the adjacent frames. Then, the bit allocation and quantization parameters are adjusted, using a certain threshold. In addition, the calculation of the mean absolute difference （MAD） is modified in an alternative way, which makes the rate distortion optimization （RDO） more accurate. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed method, compared with G012, can improve the average peak signal-to-noise ratio （PSNR） and moderate the image quality.

Rate Control for MPEG-4 Bit Stream

For a very long time video processing dealt exclusively with fixed-rate sequences of rectangular shaped images. However, interest has been recently moving toward a more flexible concept in which the subject of the processing and encoding operations is a set of visual elements organized in both time and space in a flexible and arbitrarily complex way. The moving picture experts group (MPEG- 4) standard supports this concept and its verification model (VM) encoder has adopted scalable rate control (SRC) as the rate control scheme, which is based on the spatial domain and compatible with constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR). In this paper,a new rate control algorithm based on the DCT domain instead of the pixel domain is presented. More-(over), macroblock level rate control scheme to compute the quantization step for each macroblock has been adopted. The experimental results show that the new algorithm can achieve a much better result than the original one in both peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the coding bits, and that the new algorithm is more flexible than test model 5 (TM5) rate control algorithm.

Fair rate control for wireless ad-hoc networks with time varying channel capacities

We consider the problem of fair rate control for wireless ad-hoc networks with time varying channel capacities. The interaction between links in wireless ad-hoc networks introduces additional constraints on the flow rate. A primal-dual algorithm that guarantees fair rate control is proved to be trajectory stable. Various fairness indexes are obtained by choosing the specified form of the utility functions, and the numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

A New MPEG-2 Rate Control Method Based on Model Classification

The paper proposed a new MPEG-2 rate control method that is based on model classification. The macro-blocks are classified according to their prediction errors, and different parameters are used in the rate-quantization and distortion-quantization model. The different model parameters are calculated from the previous frame of the same type in the process of coding. These models are used to estimate the relations among rate, distortion and quantization of the current frame. Further steps, such as R-D optimization based quantization adjustment and smoothing of quantization of adjacent macroblocks, are used to improve the quality. The results of the experiments prove that the technique is effective and can be realized easily. The method presented in the paper can be a good way for MPEG rate control.

Model classification rate control algorithmfor video coding

A model classification rate control method for video coding is proposed. The macro-blocks are classified according to their prediction errors, and different parameters are used in the rate-quantization and distortion-quantization model. The different model parameters are calculated from the previous frame of the same type in the process of coding. These models are used to estimate the relations among rate, distortion and quantization of the current frame. Further steps, such as R-D optimization based quantization adjustment and smoothing of quantization of adjacent macrobloeks, are used to improve the quality. The results of the experiments prove that the technique is effective and can be realized easily. The method presented in the paper can be a good way for MPEG and H. 264 rate control.

A rate based congestion control algorithm in networks with coexisting unicast and multicast sessions

The optimal rate control problem in networks with unicast and multiratemulticast sessions is investigated. A penalty function approach is used to solve a convex programformulation of this problem, and then a heuristic rate control algorithm is derived. The algorithmis distributed, and suitable both for source-driven unicast sessions and receiver-driven multicastsessions. To obtain practical viability, the computational burden on core routers as well asend-hosts is kept very low, also is the overhead of network congestion feedback. Simulation resultsshow that the algorithm guarantees TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)-based unicast sessionscoexisting with multirate multicast sessions in a fair and friendly manner. It is also shown thatvarious fairness criteria of resource allocation could be achieved by choosing appropriate utilityfunctions, and resource-utilizing efficiencies would be likewise different.

Improved Rate Control Using Statistical Information in Unit-Layer for H.264/AVC

The purpose of this paper is to improve allocation of the number of bits by estimating the target bits in H.264/AVC rate control.In the scheme,an enhancement method of the target unit-layer bit allocation is proposed,which uses a frame and unit complexity estimation to improve the existing mean absolute difference(MAD)complexity measurement.Using the statistical characteristics,we obtain change of occurrence bit about QP to apply the bit amount by QP from the video characteristics in the estimated bit amount of the current frame.Simulation results show that not only the proposed rate control scheme could achieve time saving of more than 99% over existing rate control algorithm,but also PSNR and bit rate were almost the same as the performance in all the sequences.

A Simple Adaptive Rate Control for H.264/AVC

The purpose of this paper is to improve allocation of the number of bits without skipping the frame by accurately estimating the target bits in H.264/AVC rate control.In our scheme,we propose an enhancement method of the target frame rate based H.264/AVC bit allocation.The enhancement uses a frame complexity estimation to improve the existing mean absolute difference(MAD)complexity measurement Bit allocation to each frame is not just computed by target frame rate but also adjusted by a combined frame complexity measure.Using the statistical characteristic,we obtain change of occurrence bit about QP to apply the bit amount by QP from the video characteristic and applied in the estimated bit amount of the current frame. Simulation results show that the proposed rate control scheme could not only achieves time saving of more than 99%over existing rate control algorithm,but also increase the average PSNR of reconstructed video for around 0.02～0.78 dB in all the sequences.