PSO Based Lossless and Robust Image Watermarking using Integer Wavelet Transform

In recent days, the advances in the broadcasting of multimedia contents in digital format motivate to protect this digital multimedia content form illegal use, such as manipulation, duplication and redistribution. However, watermarking algorithms are designed to meet the requirements of different applications, because, various applications have various requirements. This paper intends to design a new watermarking algorithm with an aim of provision of a tradeoff between the robustness and imperceptibility and also to reduce the information loss. This approach applies Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT) instead of conventional floating point wavelet transforms which are having main drawback of round of error. Then the most popular artificial intelligence technique, particle swarm optimization (PSO) used for optimization of watermarking strength. The strength of watermarking technique is directly related to the watermarking constant alpha. The PSO optimizes alpha values such that, the proposed approach achieves better robustness over various attacks and an also efficient imperceptibility. Numerous experiments are conducted over the proposed approach to evaluate the performance. The obtained experimental results demonstrates that the proposed approach is superior compared to conventional approach and is able to provide efficient resistance over Gaussian noise, sal

High Grade Phosphate from Syrian Phosphate at Eastern Mines

Syria is one of the major sedimentary rock phosphate producing countries in the Middle East from the Khneifiss, Eastern "A" and Eastern "B" mines. The phosphate rock of Syrian mines is being upgraded by increasing P205 content to higher values (>28%) suitable for fertilizers and other industries. But it is not always possible to do so due to interlocking of other contents such as the higher CaO/P,05 ratio, and the high chlorine and R,03 (Fe203+A1203) contents

Ultrasound promoted dichloroketene-olefin cycloadditions

We have observed that olefin-dichloroketene 2+2 cycloadditions are accelerated by ultrasonic irradiation. Short reaction times, good yields, ambient reaction conditions and use of ordinary bench-top zinc instead of activated zinc (Zn-Cu couple) are the significant advantages of this procedure

Health-care professional’s attitude, beliefs and perceived potential barriers for recommended adult immunization practices in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Immunization coverage remains very low among adults. Vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) may have an unpredictable course in diabetes mellitus (DM) owing to their altered immune functions. The objective of the study was to analyse the knowledge, attitude, practices and behaviour of the healthcare professionals (HCPs) regarding the pneumococcal, influenza and hepatitis B vaccination in patients of type-2 DM.Methods: This was a community based, cross-sectional study focusing on HCPs who were involved in diabetic care and were aware about recommended guidelines of adult immunization program. 100 HCPs completed this survey which embraced various parameters involved in vaccine uptake.Results: Females constituted 34% of the participating HCPs. The HCPs with qualification of MBBS and MD were 51% and 49% respectively. MD HCPs were routinely vaccinating DM patient more than MBBS ones which was statistically significant. Difficulty in identifying patients eligible for vaccination was perceived by 53% of HCPs. Vaccination was believed to be more important in children than adults by 63% HCPs and 93% agreed that vaccination provided protection against VPDs. Perceived as barriers for vaccination were: urgent concerns of the patients (79%), lack of time for explaining (49%), vaccine safety (60%), cost of vaccine (58%), lack of records (65%), lack of recall system (62%), lack of educational material for patients (83%), lack of training for HCPs (75%) and lack of ‘standing orders’ (84%).Conclusions: Despite recommendations for adult immunization, there are many substantial lacunae in knowledge and practice among HCPs resulting in low immunization coverage. A structured approach encompassing education and training, identification and elimination of potential barriers and improving infrastructure and leadership is the need to curb the mortality and morbidity associated with VPDs in diabetics

EDMed Inconel 718 using powder metallurgy (P/M) sintered electrode made with nano and micron sized powders

This work presents experimental data carried out for surface modification of Inconel 718 using WC/Cu composite powder metallurgy (P/M) electrodes made of nano and micron sized particles. Both machine and tool parameters were selected for study and experiments were planned as per Taguchi’s L18 mixed orthogonal array in order to find the influence of parameters on surface roughness (SR) and micro-hardness (MH). Peak current, particle size and pulse on time were found to be most significant on both SR and MH. High reactive surface area of nano particles made surface alloying greater than the other tool electrodes and has shown its influence positively on both SR and MH. The EDX analysis reveals the migration of WC and Cu elements and deposition of carbon and oxygen particles on the surface. The XRD spectrum confirms presence of carbides (WC, W2C, Fe5C2, Cr7C3, Fe7C3 and Fe3C), oxides (Fe3O4, WO3 and Cr3O) and other intermetallics at different machining conditions indicating the influence of Pulse on time (TON) and Peak current (IP) on discharge energies and in turn on the properties of machined surface. The carbides generated on the machined surface increased the hardness to 845HV without much sacrifice of the roughness of the machined surface. The range of roughness values obtained in the present investigation is 2.443 to 4.098µm

Correlation and evaluation of computed tomographic scan findings with findings of functional endoscopic sinus surgery in cases of chronic rhinosinusitis

Background: To correlate between computed tomography (CT) findings and the endoscopic findings in functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS).Methods: Clinically diagnosed 50 cases of chronic rhinosinusitis, who underwent CT-PNS scan and FESS during the period from July 2019 to September 2021 at department of ENT, government ENT hospital, Peddawaltair, Visakhapatnam, were selected by random sampling method. The findings of CT scan and FESS evaluated and the correlation was assessed using Chi-square test and kappa statistics.Results: Hypertrophy of the inferior turbinate was the most obvious finding in CT (71%) and during FESS (69%). The most common co-morbidity found among the patients with chronic sinusitis was allergy in 35% (18) patients. Most of the important findings like mucosal thickness, osteomeatal complex (OMC) patency, hypertrophy of turbinates, septal deviation, polyp, Concha bullosa were detected both in CT and FESS and show good correlation No significant correlation was found between clinical symptoms and gender or duration of disease.Conclusions: There are good to excellent correlations between the two procedures. In spite of a good agreement between CT and FESS findings in most patients, in some unusual cases, CT may miss some findings. The value of FESS is more because of its therapeutic value. From this study it is evident that CT can complement FESS to a great extent

A study of serum psedocholinesterase levels following diazinon poisoning in relation to liver function-prognostic and therapeutic value

Background: To study serum pseudo-cholinesterase (PChE) levels as an index of liver injury in individuals with diazinon poisoning with or without alcoholism. It gives the knowledge of the therapeutic efficacy and severity of liver dysfunction.Methods: Blood samples were taken from normal male adults as control and PChE is estimated. Blood samples were taken from diazinon poisoning patients from local hospitals on the 1st day and on 5th day for pseudocholinesterase estimation. Another group of blood samples were taken on the 1st day and on the 5th day from diazinon poisoning patients with history of alcoholism serum PChE is estimated.Results: Serum PChE was estimated among the normal healthy male adults as the normal value of enzyme for the various levels for comparison. Among 30 normal adults, the control value of PChE ranged between 125 and 321 µmol/ml with 212 as the mean. Following the treatment with atropine, PAM and blood transfusion, blood samples were estimated by 5th day among patients with diazinon. Their mean value was found to be 200 µmol/ml. Among individuals with alcohol and diazinon poisoning, following the treatment, the serum PChE levels were raised comparatively on 1st day. The value is 100 µmol/ml.Conclusions: In diazinon poisoning without alcoholism, the prognostic and therapeutic efficacy of the drugs is better unlike in alcoholics. Hence a scope of necessitating the hepatoprotective measures is of consideration in the organophosphorous poisoning cases

Vegetative vigour, yield and field tolerance to leaf rust in four F1 hybrids of coffee (Coffea arabica L.) in India

Four F1 hybrids of arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) developed with the primary objective of pyramiding the SH3 gene for leaf rust resistance in a commercial variety ‘Chandragiri’ for achieving the long-lasting resistance to leaf rust, have been evaluated in field. Two hybrids (S.5083 and S.5084) were derived from a donor heterozygous to SH3, while the other two hybrids (S.5085 and S.5086) were developed from donor homozygous to SH3. Among the hybrids, S.5086 recorded superior yield performance during individual years with a maximum yield of 1611 kg/ha during 2020-21 and the four year mean yield of 1313 kg/ha. The hybrid exhibited maximum heterosis over mid parent (29.10%) and better parent (17.12%) and S.5086 progeny also manifested high field tolerance to leaf rust pathogen as the entire plant population was free from the disease incidence throughout the study period. The findings of the present study established the efficiency of F1 breeding strategy with simultaneous pyramiding of rust resistance genes for development of vigorous, high yielding and durable rust resistant F1 hybrids in arabica. The F1 hybrid, S.5086 with promising performance in terms of crop yield and high field tolerance to leaf rust has potential implications for commercial exploitation

VLSI Implementation of Medical Image Fusion Using DWT-PCA Algorithms

Nowadays, the usage of DIP is more important in the medical field to identify the activities of the patients related to various diseases. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tomography (CT) scan images are used to perform the fusion process. In brain medical image, MRI scan is used to show the brain structural information without functional data. But, CT scan image is included the functional data with brain activity. To improve the low dose CT scan, hybrid algorithm is introduced in this paper which is implemented in FPGA. The main objective of this work is to optimize performances of the hardware. This work is implemented in FPGA. The combination of Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is known as hybrid algorithm. The Maximum Selection Rule (MSR) is used to select the high frequency component from DWT. These three algorithms have RTL architecture which is implemented by Verilog code. Application Specified Integrated Chips (ASIC) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) performances analyzed for the different methods. In 180 nm technology, DWT-PCA-IF architecture achieved 5.145 mm2 area, 298.25 mW power, and 124 ms delay. From the fused medical image, mean, Standard Deviation (SD), entropy, and Mutual Information (MI) performances are evaluated for DWT-PCA method