A framework towards a multi-modal fingerprinting scheme for multimedia assets

Fingerprinting is a well known approach for identifying multimedia data without having the original data present but instead what amounts to its essence or 'DNA'. Current approaches show insufficient deployment of various types of knowledge that could be brought to bear in providing a fingerprinting framework that remains effective, efficient and can accommodate both the whole as well as elemental protection at appropriate levels of abstraction to suit various Zones of Interest (ZoI) in an image or cross media artefact. The proposed framework aims to deliver selective composite fingerprinting that is powerfully aided by leveraging both multi-modal information as well as a rich spectrum of collateral context knowledge including both image-level collaterals and also the inevitably needed market intelligence knowledge such as customers' social networks interests profiling which we can deploy as a crucial component of our fingerprinting collateral knowledge.

Collaborative grid infrastructure for molecular simulations: The eMinerals minigrid as a prototype integrated computer and data grid

This paper describes a prototype grid infrastructure, called the eMinerals minigrid, for molecular simulation scientists. which is based on an integration of shared compute and data resources. We describe the key components, namely the use of Condor pools, Linux/Unix clusters with PBS and IBM's LoadLeveller job handling tools, the use of Globus for security handling, the use of Condor-G tools for wrapping globus job submit commands, Condor's DAGman tool for handling workflow, the Storage Resource Broker for handling data, and the CCLRC dataportal and associated tools for both archiving data with metadata and making data available to other workers.

Growth and public infrastructure

The paper analyzes a multicountry extension of the Barro model of productive public expenditure. In the presence of positive infrastructural externalities between countries, the provision of infrastructure will be inefficiently low if countries do not coordinate. This provides a role for a supranational body, such as the European Union, to coordinate the policies of the individual governments. It is shown how intervention by a supranational body can raise welfare by internalizing the infrastructural externality. Infrastructural externalities increase the importance of tax policy in the growth process and distribute the benefits of taxation across countries.

Digital infrastructure and changing practices in engineering design

New skills are needed to compete, as integrated software solutions provide a digital infrastructure for projects. This changes the practice of information management and engineering design on next generation projects.

Political market characteristics and the provision of educational infrastructure in North India

In this paper, we are concerned with the provision of schools in rural North India, particularly with whether such provision is determined by the demographic and economic characteristics of the region or whether local democracy also plays a role. We find that the probability that a governing party loses an election has a positive effect on the provision of schooling infrastructure, while the margin of victory of the governing party has a negative effect. Political reservation for members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) has a positive effect on schooling infrastructure in villages with a large SC population, but a negative effect overall.

Individual assets, market structure and the drivers of return

Much prior research on the structure and performance of UK real estate portfolios has relied on aggregated measures for sector and region. For these groupings to have validity, the performance of individual properties within each group should be similar. This paper analyses a sample of 1,200 properties using multiple discriminant analysis and cluster analysis techniques. It is shown that conventional property type and spatial classifications do not capture the variation in return behaviour at the individual building level. The major feature is heterogeneity - but there may be distinctions between growth and income properties and between single and multi-let properties that could help refine portfolio structures.