An adaptive image steganographic scheme based on Noise Visibility Function and an optimal chaotic based encryption method

Steganography is the science of hiding secret message in an appropriate digital multimedia in such a way that the existence of the embedded message should be invisible to anyone apart from the sender or the intended recipient. This paper presents an irreversible scheme for hiding a secret image in the cover image that is able to improve both the visual quality and the security of the stego-image while still providing a large embedding capacity. This is achieved by a hybrid steganography scheme incorporates Noise Visibility Function (NVF) and an optimal chaotic based encryption scheme. In the embedding process, first to reduce the image distortion and to increase the embedding capacity, the payload of each region of the cover image is determined dynamically according to NVF. NVF analyzes the local image properties to identify the complex areas where more secret bits should be embedded. This ensures to maintain a high visual quality of the stego-image as well as a large embedding capacity. Second, the security of the secret image is brought about by an optimal chaotic based encryption scheme to transform the secret image into an encrypted image. Third, the optimal chaotic based encryption scheme is achieved by using a hybrid optimization of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) which is allowing us to find an optimal secret key. The optimal secret key is able to encrypt the secret image so as the rate of changes after embedding process be decreased which results in increasing the quality of the stego-image. In the extracting process, the secret image can be extracted from the stego-image losslessly without referring to the original cover image. The experimental results confirm that the proposed scheme not only has the ability to achieve a good trade-off between the payload and the stego-image quality, but also can resist against the statistics and image processing attacks.     

Genetic algorithm and self organizing map based fuzzy hybrid intelligent method for color image segmentation

The grouping of pixels based on some similarity criteria is called image segmentation. In this paper the problem of color image segmentation is considered as a clustering problem and a fixed length genetic algorithm (GA) is used to handle it. The effectiveness of GA depends on the objective function (fitness function) and the initialization of the population. A new objective function is proposed to evaluate the quality of the segmentation and the fitness of a chromosome. In fixed length genetic algorithm the chromosomes have same length, which is normally set by the user. Here, a self organizing map (SOM) is used to determine the number of segments in order to set the length of a chromosome automatically. An opposition based strategy is adopted for the initialization of the population in order to diversify the search process. In some cases the proposed method makes the small regions of an image as separate segments, which leads to noisy segmentation. A simple ad hoc mechanism is devised to refine the noisy segmentation. The qualitative and quantitative results show that the proposed method performs better than the state-of-the-art methods.     

Colostrum source and passive immunity transfer in dairy bull calves

Colostrum is essential for good neonate health; however, it is not known whether different calves absorb the nutrients from colostrum equally well. In this study, the absorption of protein, IgG, and γ-glutamyl transferase was compared in newborn dairy bull calves for 1 wk after feeding colostrum from different sources. Thirty-five Holstein-Friesian bull calves were randomly allocated into 3 groups and fed colostrum within 4 h after birth. Group A calves (n = 12) were bottle fed colostrum from their own dam for 3 d. Colostrum from these group A cows was also used as foster cow colostrum for the group B calves (n = 12), such that each group A and B calf pair received identical colostrum from each milking of the respective group A dam (10% of birth weight per day). The group C calves (n = 11) were fed 1 bottle (2 L) of pooled colostrum and transition milk (referred to as pooled colostrum), as was the standard practice on the dairy farm. The pooled colostrum was collected from the other dairy cows on the farm 0 to 4 d postpartum and stored at 4°C for less than 12 h. Blood was sampled from calves before the first feeding and at 1, 2, 3, and 7 d after birth. Levels of total solids, total protein, and IgG were higher in the dam colostrum than in the pooled colostrum. At birth, there were no differences between the calf groups for any measurements, and all calves had very low IgG levels. After receiving colostrum, the glucose, plasma γ-glutamyl transferase, serum total protein, and IgG concentrations increased significantly in all calves. There were no differences in any blood measurements at any time point between the pairs of group A and group B calves that received colostrum from the same cow except for the IgG concentration 2 d after birth. However, the group A calves had a higher total serum protein level and IgG concentration than the group C calves for all the time points after the first feeding. The group B calves had a higher IgG concentration than the group C calves on d 1, 2, and 7 after birth. Compared with groups A and B, there was no difference in the proportion of calves in group C that failed to have passive immunity transferred adequately based on the IgG threshold (<10 g/L). Thus, the calves receiving identical colostrum from the same cow had the same levels of IgG, and even the pooled colostrum provided sufficient transfer of IgG as the calves were fed within 4 h after birth.     

Macrophage Immunomodulation Through New Polymers that Recapitulate Functional Effects of Itaconate as a Power House of Innate Immunity

Itaconate (ITA) is an emerging powerhouse of innate immunity with therapeutic potential that is limited in its ability to be administered in a soluble form. A library of polyester materials that incorporate ITA into polymer backbones resulting in materials with inherent immunoregulatory behavior is developed. Harnessing hydrolytic degradation release from polyester backbones, ITA polymers result in the mechanism specific immunoregulatory properties on macrophage polarization in vitro. In a functional assay, the polymer-released ITA inhibits bacterial growth on acetate. Translation to an in vivo model of biomaterial associated inflammation, intraperitoneal injection of ITA polymers demonstrate a rapid resolution of inflammation in comparison to a control polymer silicone, demonstrating the value of sustained biomimetic presentation of ITA.     

控制室格栅形屏蔽设计的计算

以抗雷击电磁脉冲干扰为例，按下列2种情况讨论控制室格栅形大空间屏蔽的设计计算：已知屏蔽网格，求磁场强度的衰减是否符合控制系统的脉冲磁场抗扰度；已知控制系统的脉冲磁场抗扰度，求屏蔽网格的宽度W等参数。     

基于遗传神经网络的电站锅炉飞灰含碳量预测

针对锅炉飞灰含碳置影响因素复杂．实时测量难度大．精度低，提出了一种基于遗传神经网络的预测方法，并用于某电厂，结果表明，该方法是有效的。     

对溢洪闸门自动监控系统中几个问题的探讨

结合某水电站介绍了溢洪闸门自动监控系统的结构、功能，讨论了该研制过程中的几个问题的解决办法．     

改进遗传算法在电力系统无功优化中的应用

针对常规遗传算法（GA）的不足,提出了一种改进搜索策略的遗传算法,采取了以下改进措施：在遗传迭代中,根据种群进化过程的个体的适应值大小,对群体进行分级,对级别高的个体进行小范围的搜索,对级别低的个体在大范围内进行搜索,保证群体的多样性的同时,又留住了优良个体。将改进的遗传算法应用于电力系统无功优化,并与常规遗传算法进行了比较,结果表明改进算法在计算速度、收敛性和全局最优搜索能力都有提高。     

智能组卷系统试题库结构的研究

在分析了传统的组卷系统的组卷算法及相应的试题库结构的基础上，基于遗传算法提出了一种新的试题库结构，并给定具体结构的确定方法。实践表明，这种结构下的试题库很好地配合遗传算法实现了智能组卷，并且系统效率更高，冗余度更小。