For difference-expansion (DE)-based reversible data hiding, the embedded bit-stream mainly consists of two parts: one part that conveys the secret message and the other part that contains embedding ...information, including the 2-D binary (overflow) location map and the header file. The first part is the payload while the second part is the auxiliary information package for blind detection. To increase embedding capacity, we have to make the size of the second part as small as possible. Tian's classical DE method has a large auxiliary information package. Thodi mitigated the problem by using a payload-independent overflow location map. However, the compressibility of the overflow location map is still undesirable in some image types. In this paper, we focus on improving the overflow location map. We design a new embedding scheme that helps us construct an efficient payload-dependent overflow location map. Such an overflow location map has good compressibility. Our accurate capacity control capability also reduces unnecessary alteration to the image. Under the same image quality, the proposed algorithm often has larger embedding capacity. It performs well in different types of images, including those where other algorithms often have difficulty in acquiring good embedding capacity and high image quality.
An increasing number of studies have revealed that the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) is related to gut microbiome composition. Under normal conditions, the gut microbiome acts as a barrier ...to other pathogens or infections in the intestine and modulates inflammation by affecting the host immune system. These gut microbiota are not only related to the intestinal inflammation associated with tumorigenesis but also modulation of the anti-cancer immune response. Thus, they are associated with tumor progression and anti-cancer treatment efficacy. Studies have shown that the gut microbiota can be used as biomarkers to predict the effect of immunotherapy and improve the efficacy of immunotherapy in treating CRC through modulation. In this review, we discuss the role of the gut microbiome as revealed by recent studies of the growth and progression of CRC along with its synergistic effect with anti-cancer treatment modalities.
We report the production of a two-dimensional (2D) heterostructured gas sensor. The gas-sensing characteristics of exfoliated molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) connected to interdigitated metal electrodes ...were investigated. The MoS2 flake-based sensor detected a NO2 concentration as low as 1.2 ppm and exhibited excellent gas-sensing stability. Instead of metal electrodes, patterned graphene was used for charge collection in the MoS2-based sensing devices. An equation based on variable resistance terms was used to describe the sensing mechanism of the graphene/MoS2 device. Furthermore, the gas response characteristics of the heterostructured device on a flexible substrate were retained without serious performance degradation, even under mechanical deformation. This novel sensing structure based on a 2D heterostructure promises to provide a simple route to an essential sensing platform for wearable electronics.
This paper proposes a forensic technique to localize duplicated image regions based on Zernike moments of small image blocks. We exploit rotation invariance properties to reliably unveil duplicated ...regions after arbitrary rotations. We devise a novel block matching procedure based on locality sensitive hashing and reduce false positives by examining the moments' phase. A massive experimental test setup benchmarks our algorithm against state-of-the-art methods under various perspectives, examining both pixel-level localization and image-level detection performance. By taking signal characteristics into account and distinguishing between "textured" and "smooth" duplicated regions, we find that the proposed method outperforms prior art in particular when duplicated regions are smooth. Experiments indicate high robustness against JPEG compression, blurring, additive white Gaussian noise, and moderate scaling.
Hue modification is a common strategy used to distort the true meaning of a digital image. In order to detect this kind of image forgery, we proposed a robust forensics scheme for detecting hue ...modification. First, we pointed out that photo response nonuniformity (PRNU) separated by a color filter array forms a pattern independent of others, since the position of each PRNU pixel means that they do not overlap. Using PRNUs from each color channel of an image, we designed a forensic scheme for estimating hue modification. We also proposed an efficient estimation scheme and an algorithm for detecting partial manipulation. The results confirmed that the proposed method distinguishes hue modification and estimates the degree of change; moreover, it is resistant to the effects of common image processing.
Because they will impact so many areas, copyright issues will inevitably arise as 3D printing expands into the content industry. The problem is that protections based on conventional methods are not ...effective, because the 3D printing process disables those protections. In this paper, we propose a robust and blind watermarking scheme that is able to protect content not only when the 3D model is shared in the digital world, but also when the 3D digital content is converted to analog content by 3D printing. First, we base our proposed watermark on a component that is unchanging to the printing direction for robustness against the printing process. The printing artifacts, instead of being regarded as severe distortion, are treated as a template that provides orientation information to the watermark detector. To achieve this, we also propose a blind estimation algorithm for the printing direction that starts from an analysis of the layering artifact. Using the results from a proposed estimator, the watermark from the printed-and-scanned model is synchronized with the original orientation. With the results of our tests with various 3D mesh models and attacks, we experimentally verified that the proposed method does not lose embedded patterns during the 3D print-scan process, especially with low-cost printers. Moreover, our method provides a new solution for estimating the printing direction that will be useful in a variety of fields.
As forgeries have become popular, the importance of forgery detection is much increased. Copy-move forgery, one of the most commonly used methods, copies a part of the image and pastes it into ...another part of the the image. In this paper, we propose a detection method of copy-move forgery that localizes duplicated regions using Zernike moments. Since the magnitude of Zernike moments is algebraically invariant against rotation, the proposed method can detect a forged region even though it is rotated. Our scheme is also resilient to the intentional distortions such as additive white Gaussian noise, JPEG compression, and blurring. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is appropriate to identify the forged region by copy-rotate-move forgery.
Asthma, a chronic respiratory disease involving variable airflow limitations, exhibits two phenotypes: eosinophilic and neutrophilic. The asthma phenotype must be considered because the prognosis and ...drug responsiveness of eosinophilic and neutrophilic asthma differ. CD4
T cells are the main determinant of asthma phenotype. Th2, Th9 and Tfh cells mediate the development of eosinophilic asthma, whereas Th1 and Th17 cells mediate the development of neutrophilic asthma. Elucidating the biological roles of CD4
T cells is thus essential for developing effective asthma treatments and predicting a patient's prognosis. Commensal bacteria also play a key role in the pathogenesis of asthma. Beneficial bacteria within the host act to suppress asthma, whereas harmful bacteria exacerbate asthma. Recent literature indicates that imbalances between beneficial and harmful bacteria affect the differentiation of CD4
T cells, leading to the development of asthma. Correcting bacterial imbalances using probiotics reportedly improves asthma symptoms. In this review, we investigate the effects of crosstalk between the microbiota and CD4
T cells on the development of asthma.
JPEG compression is one of the major image compression methods and is widely used on the Internet. In addition, identifying traces of JPEG compression and double JPEG compression (DJPEG) is crucial ...in the image forensics field. Therefore, JPEG compression detection and DJPEG compression detection are two of the popular image authentication methods. Many feature-based JPEG detection methods have been proposed for that purpose, and there have been outstanding improvements in DJPEG detection with the development of deep learning. A number of anti-forensics of JPEG detection that counter feature-based detectors have been proposed but only a few techniques that counter DJPEG have been researched. This paper explores whether JPEG reconstruction methods, including restoration and anti-forensics of JPEG detection, can deceive JPEG and DJPEG detectors. We demonstrate that existing anti-forensics of JPEG detection can deceive both JPEG and DJPEG detectors well but perform poorly in non-aligned cases and degrade the image quality. We propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) based anti-forensics method to improve the performance of anti-forensics so that they can proficiently deceive JPEG and DJPEG detectors with higher image quality. Moreover, we explore the generalization algorithm to handle the real scenario.
Current difference-expansion (DE) embedding techniques perform one layer embedding in a difference image. They do not turn to the next difference image for another layer embedding unless the current ...difference image has no expandable differences left. The obvious disadvantage of these techniques is that image quality may have been severely degraded even before the later layer embedding begins because the previous layer embedding has used up all expandable differences, including those with large magnitude. Based on integer Haar wavelet transform, we propose a new DE embedding algorithm, which utilizes the horizontal as well as vertical difference images for data hiding. We introduce a dynamical expandable difference search and selection mechanism. This mechanism gives even chances to small differences in two difference images and effectively avoids the situation that the largest differences in the first difference image are used up while there is almost no chance to embed in small differences of the second difference image. We also present an improved histogram-based difference selection and shifting scheme, which refines our algorithm and makes it resilient to different types of images. Compared with current algorithms, the proposed algorithm often has better embedding capacity versus image quality performance. The advantage of our algorithm is more obvious near the embedding rate of 0.5 bpp.
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