Robust Watermarking Method By Systematic Block Diffusion Using Discrete Cosine Transform

Digital watermarks have long been considered as a security feature. A watermarking method that involves the diffusion of limited watermark information into a large part of an image’s data has high robustness. The diffused information is summed up to a single component before detecting the watermark. The summing up process eliminates small noises by an averaging effect, which improves the robustness of the embedded watermark against attack. In this field, thus far, only an asymmetrical Chirp transformation with a small block size has been attempted. In this study, a new verification experiment for a large block size of 256 × 256 pixels is conducted. High robustness of the proposed method is revealed. This includes the finding that, in the case of a JPEG compression attack, the proposed system is robust even at strong compression of 1/70. As for a clipping attack, embedded watermarks can be detected with up to seven pixel clipping of an embedded image

Smart hardware designs for probabilistically-analyzable processor architectures

Future Critical Real-Time Embedded Systems (CRTES), like those is planes, cars or trains, require more and more guaranteed performance in order to satisfy the increasing performance demands of advanced complex software features. While increased performance can be achieved by deploying processor techniques currently used in High-Performance Computing (HPC) and mainstream domains, their use challenges the software timing analysis, a necessary step in CRTES' verification and validation. Cache memories are known to have high impact in performance, and in fact, current CRTES include multicores usually with several levels of cache. In this line, this Thesis aims at increasing the guaranteed performance of CRTES by using techniques for caches building upon time randomization and providing probabilistic guarantees of tasks' execution time. In this Thesis, we first focus on on improving cache placement and replacement to improve guaranteed performance. For placement, different existing policies are explored in a multi-level cache setup, and a solution is reached in which different of those policies are combined. For cache replacement, we analyze a pathological scenario that no cache policy so far accounts and propose several policies that fix this pathological scenario. For shared caches in multicore we observe that contention is mainly caused by private writes that go through to the shared cache, yet using a pure write-back policy also has its drawbacks. We propose a hybrid approach to mitigate this contention. Building on this solution, the next contribution tackles a problem caused by the need of some reliability mechanisms in CRTES. Implementing reliability close to the processor's core has a significant impact in performance. A look-ahead error detection solution is proposed to greatly mitigate the performance impact. The next contribution proposes the first hardware prefetcher for CRTES with arbitrary cache hierarchies. Given its speculative nature, prefetchers that have a guaranteed positive impact on performance are difficult to design. We present a framework that provides execution time guarantees and obtains a performance benefit. Finally, we focus on the impact of timing anomalies in CRTES with caches. For the first time, a definition and taxonomy of timing anomalies is given for Measurement-Based Timing Analysis. Then, we focus on a specific timing anomaly that can happen with caches and provide a solution to account for it in the execution time estimates.Los Sistemas Empotrados de Tiempo-Real Crítico (SETRC), como los de los aviones, coches o trenes, requieren más y más rendimiento garantizado para satisfacer la demanda al alza de rendimiento para funciones complejas y avanzadas de software. Aunque el incremento en rendimiento puede ser adquirido utilizando técnicas de arquitectura de procesadores actualmente utilizadas en la Computación de Altas Prestaciones (CAP) i en los dominios convencionales, este uso presenta retos para el análisis del tiempo de software, un paso necesario en la verificación y validación de SETRC. Las memorias caches son conocidas por su gran impacto en rendimiento y, de hecho, los actuales SETRC incluyen multicores normalmente con diversos niveles de cache. En esta línea, esta Tesis tiene como objetivo mejorar el rendimiento garantizado de los SETRC utilizando técnicas para caches y utilizando métodos como la randomización del tiempo y proveyendo garantías probabilísticas de tiempo de ejecución de las tareas. En esta Tesis, primero nos centramos en mejorar la colocación y el reemplazo de caches para mejorar el rendimiento garantizado. Para la colocación, diferentes políticas son exploradas en un sistema cache multi-nivel, y se llega a una solución donde diversas de estas políticas son combinadas. Para el reemplazo, analizamos un escenario patológico que ninguna política actual tiene en cuenta, y proponemos varias políticas que solucionan este escenario patológico. Para caches compartidas en multicores, observamos que la contención es causada principalmente por escrituras privadas que van a través de la cache compartida, pero usar una política de escritura retardada pura también tiene sus consecuencias. Proponemos un enfoque híbrido para mitigar la contención. Sobre esta solución, la siguiente contribución ataca un problema causado por la necesidad de mecanismos de fiabilidad en SETRC. Implementar fiabilidad cerca del núcleo del procesador tiene un impacto significativo en rendimiento. Una solución basada en anticipación se propone para mitigar el impacto en rendimiento. La siguiente contribución propone el primer prefetcher hardware para SETRC con una jerarquía de caches arbitraria. Por primera vez, se da una definición y taxonomía de anomalías temporales para Análisis Temporal Basado en Medidas. Después, nos centramos en una anomalía temporal concreta que puede pasar con caches y ofrecemos una solución que la tiene en cuenta en las estimaciones del tiempo de ejecución.Postprint (published version

電子透かしによる画像の保護特性に関する研究

芝浦工業大学201

Comparison of the vocabularies of the Gregg shorthand dictionary and Horn-Peterson's basic vocabulary of business letters

This study is a comparative analysis of the vocabularies of Horn and Peterson's The Basic Vocabulary of Business Letters1 and the Gregg Shorthand Dictionary.2 Both books purport to present a list of words most frequently encountered by stenographers and students of shorthand. The, Basic Vocabulary of Business Letters, published "in answer to repeated requests for data on the words appearing most frequently in business letters,"3 is a frequency list specific to business writing. Although the book carries the copyright date of 1943, the vocabulary was compiled much earlier. The listings constitute a part of the data used in the preparation of the 10,000 words making up the ranked frequency list compiled by Ernest Horn and staff and published in 1926 under the title of A Basic Writing Vocabulary: 10,000 Words Lost Commonly Used in Writing. The introduction to that publication gives credit to Miss Cora Crowder for the contribution of her Master's study at the University of Minnesota concerning words found in business writing. With additional data from supplementary sources, the complete listing represents twenty-six classes of business, as follows 1. Miscellaneous 2. Florists 3. Automobile manufacturers and sales companie

Radical Justice: Activist Engagement with Legal Structures During the Irish Housing Crisis

This thesis investigates whether engagement with domestic legal structures can help radical left activists, movements and parties in Ireland, to further their aims and objectives. This question is examined through the lens of the Irish housing crisis, an issue which has dominated Ireland’s political sphere in recent years. The crisis, which is rooted in the commodification of the country’s housing sector, has provoked a considerable response from the radical left. Activists have protested and campaigned on issues such as homelessness, soaring rental prices and the selling of public lands to private developers. These actions have frequently brought socialists into contact with Ireland’s legal architecture. Activists have defended against legal actions and have also attempted to utilise the law as a tool to affect social change. The thesis considers the different way in which socialists have or could engage with the legal system by examining three case studies. Two of these involve instances in which groups involving radical left actors have come into contact with Ireland’s legal structures. The first examines the occupation of Apollo House in Dublin by the Home Sweet Home group in late 2016. The study considers the legal action brought to have the activists removed, reflecting on the court proceedings and the impact those proceedings had on the political debate which surrounded the occupation. The second case study investigates the work of the Dublin Tenant’s Association, a group which sought to utilise legal practice as part of its political mobilisation. The benefits and difficulties that came with this practice is considered. The thesis also considers a prospective legal engagement, asking whether socialists should engage with the campaign to give constitutional protection to the right to housing in Ireland. This case study considers the impact the right might have on Irish housing policy and the political opportunities which may emerge if socialists choose to campaign on the issue

Australian Politics in a Digital Age

Information and communications technologies are increasingly important in the Australian political landscape. From the adoption of new forms of electoral campaigning to the use of networking technology to organise social movements, media technology has the potential to radically change the way politics is conducted and experienced in this country. The first comprehensive volume on the impact of digital media on Australian politics, this book examines the way these technologies shape political communication, alter key public and private institutions, and serve as the new arena in which discursive and expressive political life is performed. Employing a range of theoretical perspectives, empirical data, and case examples, the book provides insights on political behaviour of Australia’s elites, as well as the increasingly important politics of mirco-activism and social media. Energetic and fast-paced, the book draws together a wide range of Australian and international scholarship on the interface between communications technology and politics. Crossing several genres, the book will find a wide audience amongst scholars of both politics and communication, among public relations professionals, and with members of the media themselves

The Nuremberg Trials: International Criminal Law Since 1945

60 years after the trials of the main German war criminals, the articles in this book attempt to assess the Nuremberg Trials from a historical and legal point of view, and to illustrate connections, contradictions and consequences. In view of constantly reoccurring reports of mass crimes from all over the world, we have only reached the halfway point in the quest for an effective system of international criminal justice. With the legacy of Nuremberg in mind, this volume is a contribution to the search for answers to questions of how the law can be applied effectively and those committing crimes against humanity be brought to justice for their actions

The Nuremberg Trials

60 years after the trials of the main German war criminals, the articles in this book attempt to assess the Nuremberg Trials from a historical and legal point of view, and to illustrate connections, contradictions and consequences. In view of constantly reoccurring reports of mass crimes from all over the world, we have only reached the halfway point in the quest for an effective system of international criminal justice. With the legacy of Nuremberg in mind, this volume is a contribution to the search for answers to questions of how the law can be applied effectively and those committing crimes against humanity be brought to justice for their actions

Iniquitous symmetries: aestheticism and secularism in the reception of William Blake's works in books and periodicals during the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s

This thesis examines Blake's posthumous reception, focusing particularly on the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s as decades in which Blake's reputation was both consolidated as a poet and artist, and invigorated as a radical sympathizer. As Blake's texts and life were being formed and re-formed in physically and conceptually elaborate books, such as Alexander Gilchrist's The Life of William Blake and Algernon Charles Swinburne's William Blake: a critical essay, significant and innovative appropriations of Blake's poetry and illustrations were made in Republican and freethinking periodicals and pamphlets. This thesis recovers some of that material. Retrieving the influence of such "low culture" ephemera on the "high" culture of Pre-Raphaelite creativity allows the Victorian Blake to emerge as a multi-faceted, contradictory production: both secular iconoclast and mystical visionary, blasphemous sibyl and poet of social justice. Nineteenth-century readings and reproductions of Blake are a chronicle of freethought and freeform. The multiplicity of Blake in this period, in both reproduction and interpretation, enables a questioning of books and periodicals as mediums of representation. Blake's reproduction in the nineteenth century coincides with, and yet confounds, Foucauldian configurations of nineteenth-century representation. Although Blake is depicted as a lone, isolated individual - often labouring under the insane tag - this does not simply signify an epistemological nadir of vacuous, disconnected individualism, such as Foucault identifies. On the contrary, this thesis seeks to prove that the enthusiasm for Blake in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s is facilitated by a deep connectivity of medium and message, and between different mediums and different messages. The political stance of Secularism meets the cultural concerns of Aestheticism, both reproducing Blake through technology that improvises upon and rejuvenates Blake's own unique craft