A secure authentication watermarking for halftone and binary images

An authentication watermark is a hidden data inserted into an image that can be used to detect any accidental or malicious alteration in the image. Many authentication‐watermarking techniques for continuous‐tone images are described in the literature, but only a quite small number of secure authentication watermarking techniques are available for binary/halftone images. This article proposes a simple solution for inserting a secure authentication watermark in binary/halftone images. It consists of choosing a set of pseudo‐random pixels in the image, clearing them, computing the message authentication code (or the digital signature) of the now‐cleared image, and inserting the resulting code into the selected random pixels. Dispersed‐dot halftone images watermarked by the proposed technique present better visual quality than do watermarked generic binary images. However, in practice, the visual degradation is hardly noticeable in either case. The proposed technique seems to be the only binary/halftone watermarking scheme that can detect even a single pixel alteration in the host image. It can be used with secret‐key or public‐key ciphers. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 14, 147–152, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20018     

System Performance of Transmit Diversity Methods and a Two Fixed-Beam System in WCDMA

Downlink transmit diversity modes for WCDMA together with a two fixed-beam antenna array system are compared relative to the single antenna sectorized system in a radio network simulator. The transmit diversity methods investigated are: space-time transmit diversity and closed-loop mode I transmit diversity. Frequency selective (COST 259) and flat fading channels are considered and their impact to speech-only and data-only services is evaluated. A third service, which highlights the system performance of the various advanced antennas, is also investigated.The results in this investigation point out that the diversity gain in flat fading channels is substantial. In frequency-selective fading, the benefits of fixed beam systems is encouraging, whereas transmit diversity methods (especially Space-Time Transmit Diversity) is unsatisfactory.     

Traffic Signs Detection for Real-World Application of an Advanced Driving Assisting System Using Deep Learning

Neural Processing Letters - Recent advanced driving systems are used as luxury tools to handle a difficult or repetitive task. One of the most important tasks is traffic signs detection that...     

Identification of the major HOx radical pathways in an indoor air environment

OH and HO₂ profiles measured in a real environment have been compared to the results of the INCA‐Indoor model to improve our understanding of indoor chemistry. Significant levels of both radicals have been measured and their profiles display similar diurnal behavior, reaching peak concentrations during direct sunlight (up to 1.6×10⁶ and 4.0×10⁷ cm^?3 for OH and HO₂, respectively). Concentrations of O₃, NO_x, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), HONO, and photolysis frequencies were constrained to the observed values. The HO_x profiles are well simulated in terms of variation for both species (Pearson's coefficients: p_OH=0.55, p_HO2=0.76) and concentration for OH (mean normalized bias error: MNBE_OH=?30%), HO₂ concentration being always underestimated (MNBE_HO2=?62%). Production and loss pathways analysis confirmed HONO photolysis role as an OH precursor (here up to 50% of the production rate). HO₂ formation is linked to OH‐initiated VOC oxidation. A sensitivity analysis was conducted by varying HONO, VOCs, and NO concentrations. OH, HO₂, and formaldehyde concentrations increase with HONO concentrations; OH and formaldehyde concentrations are weakly dependent on NO, whereas HO₂ concentrations are strongly reduced with increasing NO. Increasing VOC concentrations decreases OH by consumption and enhances HO₂ and formaldehyde.     

Delayed delivery. Two cases, and review of the literature

Delayed deliveries are rarely encountered in multiple pregnancies. They are useful in case of premature fetus. We report two case of delayed delivery; the first one of 23 days in a twin pregnancy, and the second one of 4 days in a triplet pregnancy. In both cases, the first delivered fetus died, and the later one or ones survived. Delayed delivery is a good management practice for multiple pregnancies in case of prematurity if no contraindications exist.     

Vertebral hemangioma symptomatic during pregnancy. A case report and review of the literature

A simple four-tube arteries-microvessels-veins system which simulates a more realistic loading for human circulation was built using transmission line network. Hemodynamic data from literature are used in the fluid-circuit analogy, and the flow leakage and viscoelastic properties of the blood vessels have been considered. The effect of veins on the input impedance spectrum was found to be negligibly small above 0.5 Hz. The predicted input impedance spectra agree reasonably well with the published measurements both in shape and magnitude. Parametric analysis shows that the changes of vascular properties in the lower body affect the first minimum, and the changes in the upper body influence the second minimum. The blood flow in and out of kidney and liver dominates the aortic impedance from 0 to 5 Hz. Decreasing capacitance (i.e., increasing arterial stiffness due to aging), reducing the lumen area, or decreasing the length of blood vessels result in an increase in the impedance modulus, and the first minimum shift to a higher frequency which agree well with experiments. In the current model, the pressure, flow waveform, and local impedance can be predicted at any location along the circulatory tree. The characteristic of arterial pulse propagation resembles published measurements.     

Numerical analysis of smoke flow under the effect of longitudinal airflow in a tunnel fire

This study investigated the influence of the longitudinal airflow on the smoke propagation in a tunnel by large-eddy simulation, which is now widely applied to study the turbulent flow. The smoke movement characteristics were studied in detail, with varying the longitudinal airflow in the tunnel. Six fire scenarios have been simulated with Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and the results of the longitudinal distribution of CO concentration, temperature distribution, interface height, stratification, and the efficiency of smoke extraction in the tunnel have been analyzed to evaluate the different fire cases. FDS predicted a CO concentration distribution compared to calculated values using the Hu model. Furthermore, the predicted maximum smoke temperatures are compared to those given by the Kurioka model. A reasonably good agreement has been obtained for both models. The obtained results showed that the increase of the forced airflow velocity has for results a loss of stratification and significant decrease in the efficiency of extraction.     

Mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of cow manure with three-phase olive mill solid waste

The biogas production potential of different mixtures of cow manure (CM) and three-phase olive mill solid waste (3POMSW) at 37°C was evaluated. Results showed that 3POMSW produced more methane yield than CM. In the anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) methane yield increased with increasing of 3POMSW content, the maximum methane yield was observed at 3POMSW:CM ratio of 3:1. Addition of an enzyme mixture (Celluclast, Pulpzyme HC, Sherazyme, Novozym 342, and Resinase A 2X) to the 1:1 mixture increased the quantity and quality of biogas production and reduced the retention time required to achieve a high rate of biodegradation. Therefore, AcoD with enzymes was an effective way to improve the methane yield of 3POMSW and CM.     

Deep Learning Based Application for Indoor Scene Recognition

Neural Processing Letters - Recognizing indoor scene and objects and estimating their poses present a wide range of applications in robotic field. This task becomes more challenging especially in...     

An Evaluation of RetinaNet on Indoor Object Detection for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons Assistance Navigation

Neural Processing Letters - Indoor object detection presents a computer vision task that deals with the detection of specific indoor classes. This task attracts a lot of attention, especially in...