Aspects of a Watermark Solution

Although watermarking is a relatively new technology, there are many ways of applying it on an electronic data set with the purpose of ensuring copyright integrity and authenticity of the electronic data. But, bearing in mind the evolution of information technology and of communication, a watermark may be the target of several attacks which aim at its robustness, its form and even at its removal. In order to reduce these threats, this paper proposes a solution - digital watermarking completed by a hash function which has an important role in the authenticity of the content of a message and in the security of the transmission of this message through computer networks which are the main support of collaborative systems.Digital Watermarking, Hash Functions, Digital Information Security, Collaborative Systems

BRAIN Journal - Pseudo-holographic Displays as Teaching Tools in Mathematics

ABSTRACT Due to the fact that the abstract mathematical notions are often hard to grasp by students, without linking them to a specific physical representation or correlate them with regular facts, our team came up with the idea to create and implement a set of interactive teaching tool packages (ITTPs) to help them overcome such issues. The ITTPs consist of theoretical modules and applications in the framework of a Hungarian - Romanian cross-border project, developed with the aid of existing open source software and technologies. The focus of the Romanian team was on basic elements of linear algebra and analytic geometry, showcased using an auto-stereoscopic display for the purpose of image visualization. This paper presents an overview of similar technologies and the applications developed for representing pseudo-holographic images of geometric objects, namely vectors, straight lines, planes and conics. One of the developed packages was written using web technologies in order to make the applications available on mobile devices, as well as to eliminate the need to install any additional software

A couples-focused intervention for smoking cessation during pregnancy: The study protocol of the Quit Together pilot randomized controlled trial

Tobacco smoking remains the leading global cause of preventable disease and death. Preconception and pregnancy smoking are high in Central and Eastern Europe. Quit Together is a partnership between a US university and a Romanian university, obstetrics and gynecology clinics in Romania, and other community partners in Romania. The objective of the Quit Together pilot study is to adapt, enhance and test the implementation feasibility and initial efficacy of an evidence-based pregnancy and postnatal couple intervention for smoking cessation in Romania. Quit Together builds on the Motivation and Problem Solving (MAPS) approach, enhanced by targeting the couples’ smoking behavior and focusing on dyadic efficacy for smoking cessation. The study is an ongoing randomized controlled trial of 120 Romanian pregnant smokers and their partners. Participants are randomized to: 1) an intervention arm consisting, typically, of up to 8 prenatal and postnatal telephone counseling calls for the women and 4 for their partners, combining motivational strategies and problem-solving/ coping skills to encourage the woman to quit smoking and the partner to support her decision; and 2) a control arm (usual care). The primary outcome is maternal biochemically verified smoking abstinence at 3 months postpartum. Quit Together has the potential to identify effective strategies to increase maternal smoking cessation during pregnancy and smoking abstinence after birth. If effective, Quit Together is expected to have a sustainable positive impact on the health of the child, mother and partner, and potentially reduced health system costs