A novel QR-code based watermarking scheme for digital rights

This paper presents a digital rights protection scheme for both colour and grayscale images using a novel approach that combines watermarking and cryptography. The schema involves two parties: the owner of the digital rights and a generic user who acquired some rights on a copy of the image that will be watermarked. The watermark, a QR code derived from a signed “License Agreement”, is repeatedly inserted, and scrambled, by the image right’s owner, into the frequency components of the image, thus producing the watermarked image. The schema, a non-blind type, achieves good perceptive quality and fair robustness using the 3rd level of the Discrete Wavelet Transform. The experimental results show that, inserting more occurrences of a scrambled QR code, the proposed algorithm is quite resistant to JPEG compression, rotation, cropping and salt & peeper noise

Early cardiac remodeling after repair of sinus venosus atrial septal defect.

We report the case of a 24-year-old man who underwent surgical repair of a sinus venosus atrial septal defect. Transthoracic echocardiograms performed on Day 3 and 6 after surgery demonstrated a very early cardiac remodeling with dramatic reduction of the right ventricular and atrial dimensions paralleled by an increase in the size of the left ventricle. This case provides the first demonstration of a very early cardiac remodeling after repair of sinus venosus atrial septal defect

Noninvasive evaluation of skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism after heart transplant

Purpose: The main aim of the present study was to investigate skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism in heart transplant recipients (HTR) by noninvasive tools. Methods: Twenty male HTR (age 50.4 ± 2.6 yr; mean ± SE) and 17 healthy untrained age-matched controls (CTRL) performed an incremental exercise (IE) and a series of constant-load (CLE) moderate-intensity exercise tests on a cycloergometer. The following variables were determined: heart rate (HR); breath-by-breath pulmonary O2 uptake (V̇O2); and skeletal muscle (vastus lateralis) oxygenation indices by continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy. Changes in concentration of deoxygenated hemoglobin (Hb) and myoglobin (Mb) (Δ[deoxy(Hb + Mb)]), expressed as a fraction of values obtained during a transient limb ischemia, were taken as an index of skeletal muscle O2 extraction. "Peak" values were determined at exhaustion during IE. Kinetics of adjustment of variables were determined during CLE. Results: V̇O2peak, HRpeak, and Δ[deoxy(Hb + Mb)] peak were significantly lower in HTR than in CTRL (17.1 ± 0.7 vs. 34.0 ± 1.9 mL·kg-1·min -1, 133.8 ± 3.8 vs. 173.0 ± 4.8 bpm, and 0.42 ± 0.03 vs. 0.58 ± 0.04, respectively). In HTR, Δ[deoxy(Hb + Mb)] increase at submaximal workloads was steeper than in CTRL, suggesting an impaired O2 delivery to skeletal muscles, whereas the lower Δ[deoxy(Hb + Mb)] peak values suggest an impaired capacity of O 2 extraction at peak exercise. V̇O2 and HR kinetics during CLE were significantly slower in HTR than in CTRL, whereas, unexpectedly, no significant differences were found for Δ[deoxy(Hb+Mb)] kinetics (mean response time: 21.3 ± 1.1 vs. 20.2 ± 1.2 s). Conclusion: The findings confirm the presence of both "central" (cardiovascular) and "peripheral" (at the skeletal muscle level) impairments to oxidative metabolism in HTR. The noninvasiveness of the measurements will allow for serial evaluation of the patients, in the presence and/or absence of rehabilitation programs. Copyright © 2006 by the American College of Sports Medicine

Cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction in a doped athlete

Abstract Abuse of doping agents may pose a higher risk for heart disease including acute myocardial infarction. We report the case of a 50-year-old body-builder Caucasian man with a long-standing abuse of nandrolone and erythropoietin that developed a ventricular septal defect following acute myocardial infarction. This mechanical complication led to cardiogenic shock ultimately treated with the implantation of a circulatory support by means of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The patient subsequently underwent orthotopic heart transplantation. The association of intense isometric exercise, abuse of erythropoietin and nandrolone is likely to have predisposed to coronary thrombus formation and acute myocardial infarction, as the patient presented no traditional cardiovascular risk factors

Echocardiographic Assessment of Ebstein's Anomaly in a 60-Year-Old Man

Abstract We present an echocardiographic evaluation of an elderly man affected with Ebstein's anomaly. In the natural history of this congenital disease only 5% of patients survive beyond the fifth decade. The patient presented severe right heart failure and he was refered to our institution for heart transplantation