An adaptive compressed MPEG-2 video watermarking scheme

Digital watermarking is becoming more and more important for protecting the authenticity of multimedia objects as they become easier to copy, exchange, and modify. Several watermarking schemes have been proposed in recent years, but most of them deal with still images, only some being extended over to the temporal domain for video watermarking. But again most of those approaches are applied to uncompressed video processing domain. In the subject paper, a new compressed video watermarking procedure is proposed. The developed method embeds several binary images, decomposed from a single watermark image, into different scenes of a video sequence. The spatial spread spectrum watermark is embedded directly into the compressed bit streams by modifying discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients. In order to embed the watermark with minimum loss in image fidelity, a visual mask based on local image characteristics is incorporated. Extensive experimental simulations demonstrate that the proposed watermarking scheme is substantially more effective and robust against spatial attacks such as scaling, rotation, frame averaging, and filtering, besides temporal attacks like frame dropping and temporal shifting.     

Efficient approximation of correlated sums on data streams

In many applications such as IP network management, data arrives in streams and queries over those streams need to be processed online using limited storage. Correlated-sum (CS) aggregates are a natural class of queries formed by composing basic aggregates on (x, y) pairs and are of the form SUM{g(y) : x /spl les/ f(AGG(x))}, where AGG(x) can be any basic aggregate and f(), g() are user-specified functions. CS-aggregates cannot be computed exactly in one pass through a data stream using limited storage; hence, we study the problem of computing approximate CS-aggregates. We guarantee a priori error bounds when AGG(x) can be computed in limited space (e.g., MIN, MAX, AVG), using two variants of Greenwald and Khanna's summary structure for the approximate computation of quantiles. Using real data sets, we experimentally demonstrate that an adaptation of the quantile summary structure uses much less space, and is significantly faster, than a more direct use of the quantile summary structure, for the same a posteriori error bounds. Finally, we prove that, when AGG(x) is a quantile (which cannot be computed over a data stream in limited space), the error of a CS-aggregate can be arbitrarily large.     

Stress intensity factors for an interfacial crack between an orthotropic half-plane bonded to a dissimilar orthotropic layer with a punch

The plane strain problem of determining Stress Intensity Factors (SIF) for a moving interfacial Griffith crack between an elastic orthotropic half-plane and a dissimilar orthotropic layer with a moving punch situated along the boundary of the layer have been considered. The problem is reduced to the solution of three simultaneous singular integral equations with Cauchy-type singularities. Expressions for SIF for the case of a general loading are obtained. Numerical results for some particular cases are also presented graphically.     

Job scheduling in mesh multicomputers

A new approach for dynamic job scheduling in mesh-connected multiprocessor systems, which supports a multiuser environment, is proposed in this paper. Our approach combines a submesh reservation policy with a priority-based scheduling policy to obtain high performance in terms of high throughput, high utilization, and low turn-around times for jobs. This high performance is achieved at the expense of scheduling jobs in a strictly fair, FCFS fashion; in fact, the algorithm is parameterized to allow trade-offs between performance and (short-term) POPS fairness. The proposed scheduler can be used with any submesh allocation policy. A fast and efficient implementation of the proposed scheduler has also been presented. The performance of the proposed scheme has been compared with the FCFS policy, the only existing scheduling strategy for meshes, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Simulation results indicate that our scheduling strategy outperforms the FCFS policy significantly. Specifically, our strategy significantly reduces the average waiting delay of jobs over the FCFS policy. The fast implementation of the proposed scheduler results in low allocation and deallocation time overhead, as well as low space overhead     

The cut-groove technique to infer interfacial effects during hot rolling

This article presents a novel experimental technique to infer the coupled effects of friction and heat transfer during the hot rolling of steels. The technique, termed the “cut-groove” method, relates the behavior of the deforming grooves cut on the strip surface to the local effects of friction and heat transfer. Validation of the experimentally observed groove shapes involved developing two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) finite-element (FE) models that employed a probabilistic distribution diagram (PDD). The PDD framework modeled the roll-strip interface and accounted for the variations in the oxide scale as distinct states that affect both friction and heat transfer. The numerically predicted groove openings are in good agreement with the experimentally observed groove shapes, particularly for the 2-D case. For the 3-D model, deviations are observed at regions close to the strip edges that are affected by nonplanar strain arising from spread during laboratory rolling. S. DAS, formerly Student, Department of Engineering Materials, and later Research Associate, Institute of Microstructural and Mechanical Process Engineering, The University of Sheffield (IMMPETUS), Sheffield, SI 3JD, United Kingdom     

A Scalable Asynchronous Cache Consistency Scheme (SACCS) for mobile environments

In the literature, there exit two types of cache consistency maintenance algorithms for mobile computing environments: stateless and stateful. In a stateless approach, the server is unaware of the cache contents at a mobile user (MU). Even though stateless approaches employ simple database management schemes, they lack scalability and ability to support user disconnectedness and mobility. On the other hand, a stateful approach is scalable for large database systems at the cost of nontrivial overhead due to server database management. We propose a novel algorithm, called Scalable Asynchronous Cache Consistency Scheme (SACCS), which inherits the positive features of both stateless and stateful approaches. SACCS provides a weak cache consistency for unreliable communication (e.g., wireless mobile) environments with small stale cache hit probability. It is also a highly scalable algorithm with minimum database management overhead. The properties are accomplished through the use of flag bits at the server cache (SC) and MU cache (MUC), an identifier (ID) in MUC for each entry after its invalidation, and estimated time-to-live (TTL) for each cached entry, as well as rendering of all valid entries of MUC to uncertain state when an MU wakes up. The stale cache hit probability is analyzed and also simulated under the Rayleigh fading model of error-prone wireless channels. Comprehensive simulation results show that the performance of SACCS is superior to those of other existing stateful and stateless algorithms in both single and multicell mobile environments.     

Synthesis and characterization of TiC-reinforced iron-based composites Part II on mechanical characterization

The hardness, impact toughness and wear resistance properties of Fe-TiC composites, synthesized by aluminothermic reduction of an industrial waste, have been evaluated. The wear resistance property of the composites has been compared with some standard wear resistant materials. It has been found that the wear resistance property of the Fe-TiC composites with mostly pearlitic, fully pearlitic and pearlitic plus cementite type matrix with about 7 to 8 vol% TiC is better than that of a standard high chromium iron. The wear resistance property of ferritic and mostly ferritic type matrix with about 5 vol% TiC is better than that of a standard bearing steel.     

Synthesis of submicron size silver powder for passive components application

Submicron silver powder was prepared from AgNO₃ by a chemical reduction method in the presence of a mixture of caprylic acid and triethanolamine as a surfactant. Hydrazine hydrate (N₂H₄·H₂O) is preferred as a reducing agent. A spherical silver powder with an average particle size of about 150 nm was achieved. Effort was also made to correlate the crystal structure and microstructure evolution of the prepared powders with the resultant thick film characteristics.     

Note: Compact high voltage pulse transformer made using a capacitor bank assembled in the shape of primary

The experimental results of an air-core pulse transformer are presented, which is very compact (<10 Kg in weight) and is primed by a capacitor bank that is fabricated in such a way that the capacitor bank with its switch takes the shape of single-turn rectangular shaped primary of the transformer. A high voltage capacitor assembly (pulse-forming-line capacitor, PFL) of 5.1 nF is connected with the secondary of transformer. The transformer output voltage is 160 kV in its second peak appearing in less than 2 μS from the beginning of the capacitor discharge. The primary capacitor bank can be charged up to a maximum of 18 kV, with the voltage delivery of 360 kV in similar capacitive loads.