Visual Speech Recognition Using Optical Flow and Hidden Markov Model

Wireless Personal Communications - The present work proposes audio-visual speech recognition with the use of Gammatone frequency cepstral coefficient (GFCC) and optical flow (OF) features with...     

Region-based hybrid medical image watermarking for secure telemedicine applications

In this paper we propose a novel region based hybrid medical image watermarking (MIW) scheme to ensure authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of medical images. In this scheme a digital medical image is partitioned into region of interest (ROI) and the region of non interest (RONI). To detect and localize ROI tampering with high accuracy pixel wise positional and relational bits are calculated. Positional bit is calculated with respect to MSBs, row and column of the pixel. Relational bit shows the relation between MSBs. Two original LSBs of each ROI pixel are replace by their corresponding positional and relational bits. Original LSBs of ROI pixels are concatenated and embedded in RONI for ROI recovery in the case of tampering. Multiple watermarks i.e. electronic patient record (EPR), hospitals logo and LSBs of ROI are embedded simultaneously as a robust watermark in RONI using IWT-SVD hybrid transform. The proposed scheme is blind and free from false positive detection. Various experiments have been carried out on different medical imaging modalities to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of imperceptibility, robustness, tamper detection, localization, recovery and computation time. ROI tampering is detected and recovered with high accuracy. Thus, the proposed scheme is effective in telemedicine applications.

     

An integrated method of copy-move and splicing for image forgery detection

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Splicing and copy-move are two well known methods of passive image forgery. In this paper, splicing and copy-move forgery detection are performed simultaneously...     

Tin‐Catalyzed Selective Reductive Hydroamination of Alkynes for the Synthesis of Tertiary Amines

A unique preference of tin(II) for aniline activation is disclosed. In the present work tin(II) triflate‐catalyzed highly selective Markovnikov reductive hydroamination of internal as well as terminal alkynes is reported. The mechanistic study revealed the involvement of two steps in one pot wherein alkyne reduces to corresponding alkene in presence of PMHS as reducing agent followed by hydroamination of alkene. A broad range of alkynes transformed into tertiary amines with good to excellent yield. This method is equally applicable in synthesis of secondary amines.

     

Magnetohydrodynamic micropolar slip flow due to an exponentially stretching sheet with chemical reaction and nonuniform heat generation

The main focus of the current study is to examine the impact of melting heat transfer and chemical reaction on magnetohydrodynamic micropolar fluid flow over a sheet that is exponentially stretching and immersed in a porous medium. A nonuniform heat source is placed within this flow system. Other impacts like slip phenomena and thermal radiation are also taken into consideration. The governing partial differential equations are converted to a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) via similarity transformation and we also get the corresponding necessary boundary conditions. These nonlinear ODEs are resolved with the help of shooting technique and an Runge-Kutta fourth order (RK-4) iterative strategy. Also, we solve this problem using the Bvp4c approach for validating the results of the RK-4 method. Both outcomes are consistent with previously published data. With the help of tables and graphs, we examine the influence of multiple physical parameters on velocity, thermal, microrotation, concentration, Nusselt number, Sherwood number, coefficient of skin friction, and wall couple stress. We see that the temperature distribution and velocity profiles decrease when the melting parameter increases. The temperature profile boosts when the heat source parameter is increased.     

Microfluidics‐Enabled Multimaterial Maskless Stereolithographic Bioprinting

A stereolithography‐based bioprinting platform for multimaterial fabrication of heterogeneous hydrogel constructs is presented. Dynamic patterning by a digital micromirror device, synchronized by a moving stage and a microfluidic device containing four on/off pneumatic valves, is used to create 3D constructs. The novel microfluidic device is capable of fast switching between different (cell‐loaded) hydrogel bioinks, to achieve layer‐by‐layer multimaterial bioprinting. Compared to conventional stereolithography‐based bioprinters, the system provides the unique advantage of multimaterial fabrication capability at high spatial resolution. To demonstrate the multimaterial capacity of this system, a variety of hydrogel constructs are generated, including those based on poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) and gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA). The biocompatibility of this system is validated by introducing cell‐laden GelMA into the microfluidic device and fabricating cellularized constructs. A pattern of a PEGDA frame and three different concentrations of GelMA, loaded with vascular endothelial growth factor, are further assessed for its neovascularization potential in a rat model. The proposed system provides a robust platform for bioprinting of high‐fidelity multimaterial microstructures on demand for applications in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and biosensing, which are otherwise not readily achievable at high speed with conventional stereolithographic biofabrication platforms.     

A Tumor‐on‐a‐Chip System with Bioprinted Blood and Lymphatic Vessel Pair

Current in vitro antitumor drug screening strategies insufficiently mimic biological systems. They tend to lack true perfusion and draining microcirculation systems, which may post significant limitations in explicitly reproducing the transport kinetics of cancer therapeutics. Herein, the fabrication of an improved tumor model consisting of a bioprinted hollow blood vessel and a lymphatic vessel pair, hosted in a 3D tumor microenvironment‐mimetic hydrogel matrix is reported, termed as the tumor‐on‐a‐chip with a bioprinted blood and a lymphatic vessel pair (TOC‐BBL). The bioprinted blood vessel is a perfusable channel with an opening on both ends, while the bioprinted lymphatic vessel is blinded on one end, both of which are embedded in a hydrogel tumor mass, with vessel permeability individually tunable through optimization of the compositions of the bioinks. It is demonstrated that systems with different combinations of these bioprinted blood/lymphatic vessels exhibit varying levels of diffusion profiles for biomolecules and anticancer drugs. The results suggest that this unique in vitro tumor model containing the bioprinted blood/lymphatic vessel pair may have the capacity of simulating the complex transport mechanisms of certain pharmaceutical compounds inside the tumor microenvironment, potentially providing improved accuracy in future cancer drug screening.