DWT and QR code based watermarking for document DRM

Questo articolo presenta uno schema per la protezione dei diritti digitali per ogni tipo di documento presentato come immagine, usando passi che usano la crittografia e il watermarking. Le entità coinvolte in questo processo sono due: il proprietario del documento che ne possiede i diritti digitali e un utente generico che può scaricare o vedere una versione con watermark del documento originale. La versione con watermark contiene un codice QR che è inserito ripetutamente, e criptato, dal proprietario dei diritti sul documento, nelle componenti in frequenza dell'immagine, così producendo l'immagine con watermark. Il codice QR contiene un identificativo firmato che univocamente identifica ogni utente che usa il sistema. Lo schema, di tipo non-cieco, raggiunge una buona qualità percettiva e una discreta robustezza usando il terzo livello della Trasformata Discreta basata su Wavelet. I risultati sperimentali mostrano che tramite l'inserzione di diverse occorrenze di un codice QR criptato otteniamo un approccio che è piuttosto resistente alla compressione JPEG, alla rotazione, al ritaglio, e al rumore sale e pepe.This paper presents a digital rights protection scheme for every type of document presented as an image, by using steps that use cryptography and watermarking. The entities involved in this process are two: the owner of the document that owns its digital rights and a generic user who can download or view a watermarked version of the original document. The watermarked version contains a QR code that is repeatedly inserted, and scrambled, by the document rights owner, into the frequency components of the image, thus producing the watermarked image. The QR code contains a signed ID that uniquely identifies every users using the system. The schema, a non-blind type, achieves good perceptive quality and fair robustness using the third level of the Discrete Wavelet Transform. The experimental results show that by inserting several occurrences of a scrambled QR code we get an approach that is quite resistant to JPEG compression, rotation, cropping, and salt and pepper noise

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

New high-performance liquid chromatography-dad method for analytical determination of arbutin and hydroquinone in rat plasma

Natural substances present in herbal preparations should be carefully used because they can give toxic or therapeutic effects despite of their amount or the way of administration. The safety of products of vegetable origin must be assessed before commercialisation by monitoring the active ingredients and their metabolites. This study was therefore designed to identify and quantify arbutin and its metabolite hydroquinone, naturally present in Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng plant in rat plasma, after an acute and subacute administration of aqueous arbutin solution in Wistar rats. For this purpose a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detection was developed to assess the pharmacokinetic of arbutin and hydroquinone in plasma of female rats treated with aqueous arbutin solutions. The detection (arbutin: 0.0617 µg/ml and hydroquinone 0.0120 µg/ml) and quantification (arbutin: 0.2060 µg/ml and hydroquinone: 0.0400 µg/ml) limits were determined. At the arbutin concentration level of 10.7 µg/ml repeatability was 13.33% and its recovery 93.4±6.93%, while at the hydroquinone concentration level of 10.6 µg/ml repeatability was 11.66% and its recovery 92.9±7.75%. Furthermore the method was fully validated and the obtained data indicate that the new method provides good performances

Artificial Intelligence in the Water–Energy–Food Model: A Holistic Approach towards Sustainable Development Goals

This study aims to analyze the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) nexus under the lens of institutional, stakeholder, and innovation theories. Specifically, this study focuses on AI as the technology adopted by companies to promote Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A structured literature review has been conducted on 94 articles published from 1990 to 2021 in ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. This study develops an in-depth review of the literature on the main articles arguing about these issues. The findings highlight the increasing relevance of AI in the water, energy, and food industries individually considered, but the study of AI as a connector between water, energy, and food to achieve SDGs is still under investigation. Research on AI for WEF nexus management has adopted mostly a technical perspective, neglecting the relevance of management tools and the business model concept. Most of the articles did not adopt a specific theoretical lens, but scholars recognize the need to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach and the important role played by AI and other digital technologies to address the WEF nexus challenge. This study proposes an integrated approach for managing the nexus through AI technologies to meet sustainable and responsible business models. The gap between research and policy making could be filled by combining scientific data and policy needs with inclusive tools that are technically viable for sustainable resource utilization

Selective leaching of precious metals from electrical and electronic equipment through hydrometallurgical methods

The rapid human evolution has improved the quality of our lives through the use of technology. This not only resulted in increased raw materials extraction but also in the production of a worrying amount of electronic wastes. Indeed, in 2019 worldwide production of Electronic and Electric Equipment Waste (WEEE) was worth 50 million tons, causing several disadvantages such as the reduced space in landfills and massive shipping to countries with less restrictive regulations. On the other side, the billionaire electrical devices market is causing a significant increase in Precious Metals (PM) demand. Nowadays, the economic importance of PMs is as high as their supply risk. The answer to this problem consists of finding selective methods to extract and raffinate precious metals from disposed WEEE. On average, WEEEs contain around 30 % of plastics, 30 % ceramics, and 40 % metals; among these only around 0.1 % is characterized by PMs, such as gold, silver, rhodium, platinum, and palladium. The separation of PMs from other non-precious components is generally obtained using pyrometallurgy, which consists of fusing the wastes at temperatures up to 1500 ÷ 1700 °C. However, this method produces toxic gaseous byproducts and implies high energy costs. A possible alternative is given by hydrometallurgical processes, consisting of leaching the WEEE with solutions containing acids and oxidants at temperatures lower than 100°C. One of the main issues of the hydrometallurgical process is to leach copper and other non-precious base-metals selectively while keeping PMs in the solid-state. In this work, we report preliminary results of equilibrium and kinetic leaching tests in a well-stirred batch reactor, aimed at the optimization of the main operating parameters of a hydrometallurgical process for selective leaching of copper and other base-metals from Wasted Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs). In particular, experiments have been carried out at different HCl and NaCl concentrations of the leaching solutions, exploring also the effect of temperature variation (20, 50, and 70 °C)

hospital anxiety and depression

Objective: The study investigate the presence of depressive disorders in patient who are taken in general hospital, to prevent and reduce the risk of developing a psychological pathology (anxious-depressive symptoms). Methods: We used two tests: 1. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) by Goldberg, a self-report questionnaire, consisting of 12 items, used to estimate the probability of detecting non-psychotic mental disorders and problems in every day's activity. 2. Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ), a self-report questionnaire, consisting of 10 items. It is a new tool for detecting individuals with ICD-10 depressive disorders, used to estimate the probability to individuate the presence of major depression symptoms, and minor depression symptoms. Tests have been administered to 140 subjects (males' experimental group, 32 subjects; males' control group, 20 subjects; females' experimental group 58 subjects; females' control group, 30 subjects) from eight departments of university hospital, medical faculty, and social services. Results: It can be noted that with GHQ-12, the presence of non-psychotic mental disorders does not come out: just the females' group, experimental and control, shows some problems with insomnia and stress. On the other hand, with PHQ, the presence of no great entity depressive symptoms comes out for all groups. In the experimental groups the quantity of depressive symptoms is greater than in the control groups. Conclusions: We have find the presence of a number of depressive symptoms into a hospitalized population. It is known that detecting such symptoms is important for protection and care of depressive disorders in hospitalized and nonhospitalized populations

A Study of Thermal Expansion on the Predicted Mercury Surface Minerals: Preparing for MERTIS on BepiColombo

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission unveiled that most of the detectable surface of Mercury is constituted by low-Fe and Mg-rich basalts [1,2], dismissing the previously assumed widespread presence of more felsic materials - as on the Moon’s surface. In this background, the BepiColombo mission will be fundamental to reveal the residual igneous crust of the Mercury surface, in order to assess its petrogenesis. The Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spec¬trometer (MERTIS) on BepiColombo will be able to provide thermal infrared (TIR) emissivity spectra from 7 to 14 μm. This wavelength range is very useful to identify the structural properties of several silicates, and the position of the emissivity bands provides hints on the solid solutions. In addition to space-weathering degradation and impact-induced structural modifications, the thermal expansion driven by the daily tem¬perature variation of the surface of Mercury significantly affects the crystal structure and density of the present minerals and, consequently, their thermal infrared spectral signature. This behaviour has been recently demonstrated for several common terrestrial mineralogical phases [3,4,5], and could be even predicted for other silicates. A more difficult interpretation of the spectra arises, of course, from the simultaneous presence of different minerals, each one with its characteristic thermal expansion coefficient. In addition to the temperature-dependent spectral variations of single constituents (e.g. plagioclases, olivine, pyroxenes), the DLR Planetary Emissivity Laboratory (PEL) is measuring emissivity spectra of linear mixtures that most likely could be present on the surface of Mercury. To this aim, spectra of binary compositions (e.g., anorthosite, gabbro) and their single-phase components are measured along the MERTIS wavelength range in vacuum from low to high-temperatures - up to 450°C

Clinicopathological features of extranodal lymphomas: Kuwait experience

A total of 935 patients with extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) diagnosed in the period between January 1985 and December 2000 in Kuwait Cancer Center, serving the whole population of Kuwait, were used to describe the clinicopathological and epidemiological features of extranodal lymphomas in Kuwait. Extranodal lymphomas accounted for 45% of all NHL observed during this time. All NHL cases from Kuwait Cancer registry were analyzed and pathologically reclassified using the latest WHO ( 2000) classification. The most common lymphoma observed was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (58.60%) followed by Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) (3.80%). In the pediatric group, BL comprises more than two thirds of all patients (77.20%). The most common extranodal sites were stomach (19.70%) and skin (17.80%) in the adult group, large intestine (29.80%) and small intestine (19.30%) in the pediatric age group. The majority (73.40%) of adult extranodal lymphomas was in stage IE - IIE and had a very good prognosis. On the contrary, the majority of pediatric extranodal lymphomas were found to be in stage III and IV. Variations in treatment policies ( single agent or combined chemotherapy, radiotherapy, combined modality treatment) adopted and changed during the time period of 16 years of this retrospective study were documented. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Toll-iike receptor-3 activation enhances malignant traits in human breast cancer cells through hypoxia-inducible factor-1α

Background/Aim: Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF1) inhibitors have been proposed as therapeutic agents for several tumor types. HIF1α is induced by hypoxia and by pathogens in normoxia through toll-like receptors (TLRs). The TLR3 activator polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid [poly(I:C)] induces apoptosis in various types of cancer but not in the most aggressive breast cancer cell lines. We hypothesized that the failure of TLR3 stimulation to induce apoptosis in these cells might be due to an elevated HIF1α level and this link might be exploited. Materials and Methods: Poly(I:C)-induced signaling pathway and expression of HIF1α and HIF1α targets were studied in MDA MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines by western blot. Flow cytometry was used for apoptotic responses and vasculogenic mimicry as bioassay. Results: Poly(I:C) increased expression of HIF1α and its targets BCL2 apoptosis regulator and c-MYC. Moreover, using pharmacological or genetic HIF1 inhibition, reduction of poly(I:C)-induced expression of HIF1α was paralleled by lowering of c-MYC and increased sensitivity to poly(I:C)-induced apoptosis, demonstrating the crucial role of this factor. We provide the first evidence in breast cancer cells that TLR3 stimulation induces HIF1αdependent vasculogenic mimicry. By using specific inhibitors, we identified a signaling cascade upstream of HIF1α induction. Conclusion: Combined treatment with poly(I:C) and HIF1 inhibitors deserves consideration as an effective strategy in breast cancer therapy