Generative Model Watermarking Based on Human Visual System

Intellectual property protection of deep neural networks is receiving attention from more and more researchers, and the latest research applies model watermarking to generative models for image processing. However, the existing watermarking methods designed for generative models do not take into account the effects of different channels of sample images on watermarking. As a result, the watermarking performance is still limited. To tackle this problem, in this paper, we first analyze the effects of embedding watermark information on different channels. Then, based on the characteristics of human visual system (HVS), we introduce two HVS-based generative model watermarking methods, which are realized in RGB color space and YUV color space respectively. In RGB color space, the watermark is embedded into the R and B channels based on the fact that HVS is more sensitive to G channel. In YUV color space, the watermark is embedded into the DCT domain of U and V channels based on the fact that HVS is more sensitive to brightness changes. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed work, which improves the fidelity of the model to be protected and has good universality compared with previous methods.Comment: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IdiF7M0AAAAJ&hl=e

Impact of drainage catheter material, size, and anti-dislodgement mechanism on percutaneous nephrostomy exchange intervals: a systematic review protocol [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Background: Percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN) is a commonly performed procedure by interventional radiology and urology to treat urinary obstruction. In this procedure, a catheter is percutaneously placed into the renal pelvis for urinary diversion or hemorrhagic cystitis. Material type, catheter size, and catheter shape (anti-dislodgement feature) ultimately contribute to the inherent traits of longevity in drainage catheter device. Reviewing the relative strengths or weaknesses of products in the existing clinical market may help clinicians critically appraise the devices they use with evidence-based findings from this review. Furthermore, a deeper understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of existing devices may help inform the next generation of drainage catheter devices to prolong the interval between exchanges without detriment to patient safety. Methods: The following electronic databases will be queried: PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane from their inception to January 2023 to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cohort studies to investigate the differences that our interventions of catheter material, size, and dislodgement mechanism will have on the exchange interval (standard of care 90 days vs. 60 days vs. 45 days vs. 30 days). The primary outcomes will be the drainage catheter exchange frequency. Ethics and dissemination: We aim to share our findings through high-impact peer reviewed journals. As drainage catheters and minimally invasive interventional radiology procedures become more popular, it is important for healthcare providers taking case of these populations to understand which variables might optimize patient care and minimize emergent exchanges. Data will be made available to readers. Registration: PROSPERO (CRD42023432788, 16 June 2023)

Integrated 16S rRNA sequencing and nontargeted metabolomics analysis to reveal the mechanisms of Yu-Ye Tang on type 2 diabetes mellitus rats

IntroductionYu–Ye Tang (YYT) is a classical formula widely used in treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the specific mechanism of YYT in treating T2DM is not clear.MethodsThe aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effect of YYT on T2DM by establishing a rat model of T2DM. The mechanism of action of YYT was also explored through investigating gut microbiota and serum metabolites.ResultsThe results indicated YYT had significant therapeutic effects on T2DM. Moreover, YYT could increase the abundance of Lactobacillus, Candidatus_Saccharimonas, UCG-005, Bacteroides and Blautia while decrease the abundance of and Allobaculum and Desulfovibrio in gut microbiota of T2DM rats. Nontargeted metabolomics analysis showed YYT treatment could regulate arachidonic acid metabolism, alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, phenylalanine metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, tryptophan metabolism, and tyrosine metabolism in T2DM rats.DiscussionIn conclusion, our research showed that YYT has a wide range of therapeutic effects on T2DM rats, including antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects. Furthermore, YYT corrected the altered gut microbiota and serum metabolites in T2DM rats. This study suggests that YYT may have a therapeutic impact on T2DM by regulating gut microbiota and modulating tryptophan and glycerophospholipid metabolism, which are potential key pathways in treating T2DM

Leaf and Root Endospheres Harbor Lower Fungal Diversity and Less Complex Fungal Co-occurrence Patterns Than Rhizosphere

Plant-associated microbiomes are key determinants of host-plant fitness, productivity, and function. However, compared to bacterial community, we still lack fundamental knowledge concerning the variation in the fungal microbiome at the plant niche level. In this study, we quantified the fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil, as well as leaf and root endosphere compartments of a subtropical island shrub, Mussaenda kwangtungensis, using high-throughput DNA sequencing. We found that fungal microbiomes varied significantly across different plant compartments. Rhizosphere soil exhibited the highest level of fungal diversity, whereas the lowest level was found in the leaf endosphere. Further, the fungal communities inhabiting the root endosphere shared a greater proportion of fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with rhizosphere communities than with leaf fungal endophyte communities, despite significant separation in community structure between the two belowground compartments. The fungal co-occurrence networks in the three compartments of M. kwangtungensis showed scale-free features and non-random co-occurrence patterns and matched the topological properties of small-world and evidently modular structure. Additionally, the rhizosphere network was more complex and showed higher centrality and connectedness than the leaf and root endosphere networks. Overall, our findings provide comprehensive insights into the structural variability, niche differentiation, and co-occurrence patterns in the plant associated fungal microbiome

High-Frequency Artifacts-Resistant Image Watermarking Applicable to Image Processing Models

With the extensive adoption of generative models across various domains, the protection of copyright for these models has become increasingly vital. Some researchers suggest embedding watermarks in the images generated by these models as a means of preserving IP rights. In this paper, we find that existing generative model watermarking introduces high-frequency artifacts in the high-frequency spectrum of the marked images, thereby compromising the imperceptibility and security of the generative model watermarking system. Given this revelation, we propose an innovative image watermarking technology that takes into account frequency-domain imperceptibility. Our approach abandons the conventional convolutional neural network (CNN) structure typically used as the watermarking embedding network in popular watermarking techniques. This helps the image watermarking system to avoid the inherent high-frequency artifacts commonly produced by CNNs. In addition, we design a frequency perturbation generation network to generate low-frequency perturbations. These perturbations are subsequently added as watermarks to the low-frequency components of the carrier image, thus minimizing the impact of the watermark embedding process on the high-frequency properties of the image. The results show that our proposed watermarking framework can effectively embed low-frequency perturbation watermarks into images and effectively suppress high-frequency artifacts in images, thus significantly improving the frequency-domain imperceptibility and security of the image watermarking system. The introduced approach enhances the average invisibility performance in the frequency domain by up to 24.9% when contrasted with prior methods. Moreover, the method attains superior image quality (>50 dB) in the spatial domain, accompanied by a 100% success rate in watermark extraction in the absence of attacks. This underscores its capability to uphold the efficacy of the protected network and preserve the integrity of the watermarking process. It always maintains excellent imperceptibility and robustness. Thus, the framework shows great potential as a state-of-the-art solution for protecting intellectual property

Exploiting Frequency Characteristics for Boosting the Invisibility of Adversarial Attacks

Mainstream transferable adversarial attacks tend to introduce noticeable artifacts into the generated adversarial examples, which will impair the invisibility of adversarial perturbation and make these attacks less practical in real-world scenarios. To deal with this problem, in this paper, we propose a novel black-box adversarial attack method that can significantly improve the invisibility of adversarial examples. We analyze the sensitivity of a deep neural network in the frequency domain and take into account the characteristics of the human visual system in order to quantify the contribution of each frequency component in adversarial perturbation. Then, we collect a set of candidate frequency components that are insensitive to the human visual system by applying K-means clustering and we propose a joint loss function during the generation of adversarial examples, limiting the frequency distribution of perturbations during attacks. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms existing transferable black-box adversarial attack methods in terms of invisibility, which verifies the superiority, applicability and potential of this work

Green Synthesis of Phosphorescent Carbon Dots for Anticounterfeiting and Information Encryption

Room-temperature phosphorescent (RTP) carbon dots (CDs) have promising applications in bioimaging, anticounterfeiting, and information encryption owing to their long lifetimes and wide Stokes shifts. Numerous researchers are interested in developing highly bright RTP CDs using environmentally friendly and safe synthesis processes (e.g., natural raw materials and zero-pollution production pathways). In this study, we successfully synthesized RTP CDs using a hydrothermal process employing natural vitamins as a raw material, ethylenediamine as a passivator, and boric acid as a phosphorescent enhancer, which is referred to as phosphorescent CD (PCD). The PCDs exhibit both bright blue fluorescence emission and green RTP emission, with a phosphorescence lifetime as long as 293 ms and an excellent green afterglow visible to the naked eye for up to 7.0 s. The total quantum yield is 12.69%. The phosphorescence quantum yield (PQY) is up to 5.15%. Based on the RTP performance, PCDs have been successfully employed for anticounterfeiting and information protection applications. The results of this study provide a green strategy for the scalable synthesis of RTP materials, which is a practical method for the fabrication of RTP materials with high efficiency and long afterglow lifetimes

Management of cardiac tamponade during catheter-directed thrombolysis of saddle pulmonary embolism: A clinical dilemma

Catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) for the treatment of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) has gained popularity in recent years, but potential complications during the procedure and their management are not frequently discussed in the literature. In this case report, we describe the clinical dilemma regarding the postoperative anticoagulation management of a 60-year-old male who developed cardiac perforation during a CDT of an acute saddle PE. Early resumption of systemic heparin in such cases may help in clot resolution; however, it can worsen the hemopericardium. On the other hand, delaying restarting heparin may help in healing of the cardiac perforation but can lead to clot propagation. As the chest tube output was minimal initially, anticoagulation was started, which, however, led to disastrous outcome. With limited published medical literature to help guide such a complex situation, it may be prudent to carefully weigh the risks and benefits of resuming systemic heparin versus delaying it for 1–2 days to allow for definitive resolution of the cardiac perforation

A Dynamic Attitude Measurement System Based on LINS

A dynamic attitude measurement system (DAMS) is developed based on a laser inertial navigation system (LINS). Three factors of the dynamic attitude measurement error using LINS are analyzed: dynamic error, time synchronization and phase lag. An optimal coning errors compensation algorithm is used to reduce coning errors, and two-axis wobbling verification experiments are presented in the paper. The tests indicate that the attitude accuracy is improved 2-fold by the algorithm. In order to decrease coning errors further, the attitude updating frequency is improved from 200 Hz to 2000 Hz. At the same time, a novel finite impulse response (FIR) filter with three notches is designed to filter the dither frequency of the ring laser gyro (RLG). The comparison tests suggest that the new filter is five times more effective than the old one. The paper indicates that phase-frequency characteristics of FIR filter and first-order holder of navigation computer constitute the main sources of phase lag in LINS. A formula to calculate the LINS attitude phase lag is introduced in the paper. The expressions of dynamic attitude errors induced by phase lag are derived. The paper proposes a novel synchronization mechanism that is able to simultaneously solve the problems of dynamic test synchronization and phase compensation. A single-axis turntable and a laser interferometer are applied to verify the synchronization mechanism. The experiments results show that the theoretically calculated values of phase lag and attitude error induced by phase lag can both match perfectly with testing data. The block diagram of DAMS and physical photos are presented in the paper. The final experiments demonstrate that the real-time attitude measurement accuracy of DAMS can reach up to 20″ (1σ) and the synchronization error is less than 0.2 ms on the condition of three axes wobbling for 10 min