2,767 research outputs found
A contrast-sensitive reversible visible image watermarking technique
A reversible (also called lossless, distortion-free, or
invertible) visible watermarking scheme is proposed to satisfy the applications, in which the visible watermark is expected to combat copyright piracy but can be removed to losslessly recover the original image. We transparently reveal the watermark image by overlapping it on a user-specified region of the host image through adaptively adjusting the pixel values beneath the watermark, depending on the human visual system-based scaling factors. In order to achieve reversibility, a reconstruction/ recovery packet, which is utilized to restore the watermarked area, is reversibly inserted into non-visibly-watermarked region. The packet is established according to the difference image between the original image and its approximate version instead of its visibly watermarked version so as to alleviate its overhead. For the generation of the approximation, we develop a simple prediction technique that makes use of the unaltered neighboring pixels as auxiliary information. The recovery packet is uniquely encoded before hiding so that the original watermark pattern can be reconstructed based on the encoded packet. In this way, the image recovery process is carried out without needing the availability of the watermark. In addition, our method adopts data compression for further reduction in the recovery packet size and improvement in embedding capacity. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme compared to the existing methods
Topological surface states in three-dimensional magnetic insulators
An electron moving in a magnetically ordered background feels an effective
magnetic field that can be both stronger and more rapidly varying than typical
externally applied fields. One consequence is that insulating magnetic
materials in three dimensions can have topologically nontrivial properties of
the effective band structure. For the simplest case of two bands, these "Hopf
insulators" are characterized by a topological invariant as in quantum Hall
states and Z_2 topological insulators, but instead of a Chern number or parity,
the underlying invariant is the Hopf invariant that classifies maps from the
3-sphere to the 2-sphere. This paper gives an efficient algorithm to compute
whether a given magnetic band structure has nontrivial Hopf invariant, a
double-exchange-like tight-binding model that realizes the nontrivial case, and
a numerical study of the surface states of this model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; published versio
Symmetries and Lie algebra of the differential-difference Kadomstev-Petviashvili hierarchy
By introducing suitable non-isospectral flows we construct two sets of
symmetries for the isospectral differential-difference Kadomstev-Petviashvili
hierarchy. The symmetries form an infinite dimensional Lie algebra.Comment: 9 page
Effects of relative orientation of the molecules on electron transport in molecular devices
Effects of relative orientation of the molecules on electron transport in
molecular devices are studied by non-equilibrium Green's function method based
on density functional theory. In particular, two molecular devices, with the
planer Au and Ag clusters sandwiched between the Al(100) electrodes
are studied. In each device, two typical configurations with the clusters
parallel and vertical to the electrodes are considered. It is found that the
relative orientation affects the transport properties of these two devices
completely differently. In the Al(100)-Au-Al(100) device, the conductance
and the current of the parallel configuration are much larger than those in the
vertical configuration, while in the Al(100)-Ag-Al(100) device, an
opposite conclusion is obtained
Using the modified back-propagation algorithm to perform automated downlink analysis
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-122).by Nancy Y. Xiao.M.Eng
Tim-3 Negatively Regulates IL-12 Expression by Monocytes in HCV Infection
T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (Tim-3) is a newly identified negative immunomodulator that is up-regulated on dysfunctional T cells during viral infections. The expression and function of Tim-3 on human innate immune responses during HCV infection, however, remains poorly characterized. In this study, we report that Tim-3 is constitutively expressed on human resting CD14+ monocyte/macrophages (M/MØ) and functions as a cap to block IL-12, a key pro-inflammatory cytokine linking innate and adaptive immune responses. Tim-3 expression is significantly reduced and IL-12 expression increased upon stimulation with Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) ligand - lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and TLR7/8 ligand - R848. Notably, Tim-3 is over-expressed on un-stimulated as well as TLR-stimulated M/MØ, which is inversely associated with the diminished IL-12 expression in chronically HCV-infected individuals when compared to healthy subjects. Up-regulation of Tim-3 and inhibition of IL-12 are also observed in M/MØ incubated with HCV-expressing hepatocytes, as well as in primary M/MØ or monocytic THP-1 cells incubated with HCV core protein, an effect that mimics the function of complement C1q and is reversible by blocking the HCV core/gC1qR interaction. Importantly, blockade of Tim-3 signaling significantly rescues HCV-mediated inhibition of IL-12, which is primarily expressed by Tim-3 negative M/MØ. Tim-3 blockade reduces HCV core-mediated expression of the negative immunoregulators PD-1 and SOCS-1 and increases STAT-1 phosphorylation. Conversely, blocking PD-1 or silencing SOCS-1 gene expression also decreases Tim-3 expression and enhances IL-12 secretion and STAT-1 phosphorylation. These findings suggest that Tim-3 plays a crucial role in negative regulation of innate immune responses, through crosstalk with PD-1 and SOCS-1 and limiting STAT-1 phosphorylation, and may be a novel target for immunotherapy to HCV infection
Spin waves in the block checkerboard antiferromagnetic phase
Motivated by the discovery of new family 122 iron-based superconductors, we
present the theoretical results on the ground state phase diagram, spin wave
and dynamic structure factor of the extended Heisenberg model. In
the reasonable physical parameter region of , we fi{}nd the
block checkerboard antiferromagnetic order phase is stable. There are two
acoustic branches and six optical branches spin wave in the block checkerboard
antiferromagnetic phase, which has analytic expression in the high symmetry
points. To compare the further neutron scattering experiments, we discuss the
saddlepoint structure in the magnetic excitation spectrum and calculate the
predicted inelastic neutron scattering pattern based on linear spin wave
theory
Isostructural Phase Transition of TiN Under High Pressure
In situ high-pressure energy dispersive x-ray diffraction experiments on
polycrystalline powder TiN with NaCl-type structure have been conducted with
the pressure up to 30.1 GPa by using the diamond anvil cell instrument with
synchrotron radiation at room tempearture. The experimental results suggested
that an isostructural phase transition might exist at about 7 GPa as revealed
by the discontinuity of V/V0 with pressure.Comment: submitte
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