Enhancing security of DICOM images during storage and transmission in distributed environment

Digital watermarking is proposed as a method to enhance medical data security. Medical image watermarking requires extreme care when embedding additional information within medical images, because the additional information should not degrade medical image quality. Doctors diagnose medical images by seeing Region of Interest (ROI). A ROI of a medical image is an area including important information and must be stored without any distortion. If a medical image is illegally obtained or if its content is changed, it may lead to wrong diagnosis. In our scheme a well-known technique least significant bit substitution (LSB) is adapted to fulfill the requirements of data hiding and authentication in medical images. The scheme divide Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image into two parts ROI and non-ROI (non-region of interest). The DS (Digital Signature) which include patient data and SOP Instance UID are embedded randomly into the LSB border of the image. The DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform) of ROI-MSB (most significant bit) embedded into the LSB middle of the image. The Result shows the ability to hide and retrieve DS in non-ROI, while ROI, the most important area for diagnosis, is retrieved exactly at the receiver side.     

AN INTEGRATED PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF TUNGSTEN AND TIN FROM A COMBINED WOLFRAMITE–SCHEELITE–CASSITERITE CONCENTRATE

This article presents results of the studies on development of viable process route for quantitative recovery of tungsten and tin values occurring together in the form of a multimineral concentrate of wolframite, scheelite, and cassiterite. The investigations were carried out using a tin–tungsten multimineral ore from Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia). Tungsten minerals in this ore occur both as distinct liberated mineral phases and as composites, viz. ultrafine dissemination of wolframite in scheelite and vice versa. Cassiterite also has similar characteristics, albeit to a lesser extent, with few grains containing ex-solution intergrowth of columbite/tantalite and very fine dissemination of tungsten minerals in its lattice. The complex nature of occurrence of both tungsten and tin minerals necessitated an integrated process comprising physical beneficiation and chemical extraction. The process route that was developed gave a tungsten and tin recovery of about 80 and 90%, respectively, on treating a primary gravity preconcentrate analyzing 16.5% WO₃ and 25.7% Sn.     

Microbial aspects of acid mine drainage and its bioremediation

The role of chemolithotrophs such as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans which were isolated from some abandoned mines and processed waste tailings in the generation of acid mine drainage and toxic metal dissolution was discussed. Mechanisms of acid formation and dissolution of copper, zinc, iron and arsenic from copper, lead-zinc and arsenopyrite-bearing sulfide ores and railings were established in the presence of Acidithiobacillus group of bacteria. Sulphate Reducing Bacteria（SRB） isolated from the above mine sites could be used to precipitate dissolved metals such as copper, zinc, iron and arsenic. Arsenic bioremediation was demonstrated through the use of native microorganisms such Thiomonas spp. which could oxidize arsenite to arsenate. Bioremoval of arsenic through the use of jarosite precipitates generated by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans was also found to be very effective. Biotechnological processes hold great promise in the remediation of acid mine drainage and efficient removal of toxic metal ions such as copper, zinc and arsenic.     

Automatic Tamil lyric generation based on ontological interpretation for semantics

This system proposes an N-gram based approach to automatic Tamil lyric generation, by the ontological semantic interpretation of the input scene. The approach is based on identifying the semantics conveyed in the scenario, thereby making the system understand the situation and generate lyrics accordingly. The heart of the system includes the ontological interpretation of the scenario, and the selection of the appropriate tri-grams for generating the lyrics. To fulfill this, we have designed a new ontology with weighted edges, where the edges correspond to a set of sentences, which indicate a relationship, and are represented as a tri-gram. Once the appropriate tri-grams are selected, the root words from these tri-grams are sent to the morphological generator, to form words in their packed form. These words are then assembled to form the final lyrics. Parameters of poetry like rhyme, alliteration, simile, vocative words, etc., are also taken care of by the system. Using this approach, we achieved an average accuracy of 77.3% with respect to the exact semantic details being conveyed in the generated lyrics.     

Ba3(P1 − x Mn x O4)2 : Blue/green inorganic materials based on tetrahedral Mn(V)

We describe a blue/green inorganic material, Ba₃(P_1???x Mn _x O₄)₂ (I) based on tetrahedral MnO $_{4}^{3-}$ :3d ²chromophore. The solid solutions (I) which are sky-blue and turquoise-blue for x ≤ 0·25 and dark green for x ≥ 0·50, are readily synthesized in air from commonly available starting materials, stabilizing the MnO $_{4}^{3-}$ chromophore in an isostructural phosphate host. We suggest that the covalency/ionicity of P–O/Mn–O bonds in the solid solutions tunes the crystal field strength around Mn(V) such that a blue colour results for materials with small values of x. The material could serve as a nontoxic blue/green inorganic pigment.     

Effect of glass hybridization and staking sequence on mechanical behaviour of interply coir–glass hybrid laminate

The interest in fibre-reinforced polymer composites is growing rapidly due to its high performance in terms of mechanical properties, significant processing advantages, excellent chemical resistance, low cost, and low density. The development of composite materials based on the reinforcement of two or more fibre types in a matrix leads to the production of hybrid composites. In the present work, woven coir–glass hybrid polyester composites were developed and their mechanical properties were evaluated for different stacking sequences. Scanning electron micrographs of fractured surfaces were used for a qualitative evaluation of interfacial properties of woven coir–glass hybrid polyester composites. These results indicated that coir–glass hybrid composites offered the merits of both natural and synthetic fibres.     

Study of optical characteristics of tin oxide thin film prepared by sol–gel method

In this paper, we present details of preparation of tin oxide (SnO $_{{2}})$ thin film by sol–gel process. The film was synthesized on a glass (Corning 7059) plate by dip coating method. Here, we used tin (II) chloride as precursor and methanol as solvent. Optical characteristics and physical properties like refractive index, absorption coefficient and thickness of thin film were calculated from the study of transmission spectrum (wavelength vs transmission curve) data given by UV/VIS Spectrophotometer. Effect of number of coatings on transmittance and refractive index was also examined. It was observed that refractive index decreases with the number of coating and transmission value was more than 80% at wavelength greater than 450 nm in all cases. Structural analysis was studied by XRD measurement by using diffractometer which confirms tetragonal rutile structure of SnO ₂ . Surface morphology was analysed from SEM micrograph and change in morphology on number of coat was discussed.     

TITRIMETRIC DETERMINATION OF TOTAL ALDEHYDES IN CINNAMON BARK AND LEAF OILS USING CHLORAMINE-T REAGENT

A titrimetric method for determining cinnamaldehyde has been developed; it is based on the quantitative reaction of the aldehyde with semicarbazide hydrochloride to form the semicarbazone. The semicarbazone is removed and the excess unreacted semicarbazide determined iodometrically using chloramine-T reagent. Two moles of chloramine-T are required per mole of the semicarbazide. The method has been used in the routine quality evaluation of cinnamon oils and the samples required are about 0.02 g for bark oils and 0.05 g for leaf oils.