• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.510-519
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• 2011

Intra mode decision is a useful coding tool in Distributed Video Coding (DVC) for improving DVC coding efficiency for video sequences having fast motion. A major limitation associated with the existing intra mode decision methods, however, is that its efficiency highly depends on user-specified thresholds or modeling parameters. This paper proposes an entropy-based method to address this problem. The probabilities of intra and Wyner?Ziv (WZ) modes are determined firstly by examining correlation of pixels in spatial and temporal directions. Based on these probabilities, entropy of the intra and the WZ modes are computed. A comparison based on the entropy values decides a coding mode between intra coding and WZ coding without relying on any user-specified thresholds or modeling parameters. Experimental results show its superior rate-distortion performance of improvements of PSNR up to 2 dB against a conventional Wyner?Ziv coding without intra mode decision. Furthermore, since the proposed method does not require any thresholds or modeling parameters from users, it is very attractive for real life applications.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.186-193
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• 2005

Purpose: To improve the management of a medical linear accelerator, the records of operational failures of a Varian CL2l00C over a ten year period were retrospectively analyzed. Materials and Methods: The failures were classified according to the involved functional subunits, with each class rated Into one of three levels depending on the operational conditions. The relationships between the failure rate and working ratio and between the failure rate and outside temperature were investigated. In addition, the average life time of the main part and the operating efficiency over the last 4 years were analyzed. Results: Among the recorded failures (total 587 failures), the most frequent failure was observed in the parts related with the collimation system, including the monitor chamber, which accounted for $20\%$ of all failures. With regard to the operational conditions, 2nd level of failures, which temporally interrupted treatments, were the most frequent. Third level of failures, which interrupted treatment for more than several hours, were mostly caused by the accelerating subunit. The number of failures was increased with number of treatments and operating time. The average life-times of the Klystron and Thyratron became shorter as the working ratio increased, and were 42 and $83\%$ of the expected values, respectively. The operating efficiency was maintained at $95\%$ or higher, but this value slightly decreased. There was no significant correlation between the number of failures and the outside temperature. Conclusion: The maintenance of detailed equipment problems and failures records over a long period of time can provide good knowledge of equipment function as well as the capability of predicting future failure. Wore rigorous equipment maintenance Is required for old medical linear accelerators for the advanced avoidance of serious failure and to improve the qualify of patient treatment.