Watermarking has established itself as a promising solution in the context of digital image copyright protection. Frequency domain watermarking is mainly preferred due to associated robustness and perceptual issues but requires a large amount of computation. On the other hand spatial domain watermarking is much faster but lacks when robustness is concerned. In this paper a block based spatial domain watermarking technique for color images is proposed that is fast and robust. Two-way embedding introduced in the paper provides capability to previously estimate perceptual degradation in host image due to watermark embedding. Multiple watermarking in two component images is used to achieve better imperceptibility and better robustness. Self-encryption introduced aims to remove dependency over external secret key however optional encryption with random secret keys is proposed for providing better security. Proposed embedding technique is an effort to achieve proper balance between robustness and quality degradation of image. Experiments suggest proposed method is robust against processing attacks such as spatial filtering transformations image enhancement and loss compression.

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Dual plane multiple spatial watermarking with self-encryption

The World Wide Web is, in many respects, a world without barriers. Its openness is highly appealing, if not downright noble. Unfortunately people can take advantage of this electronic latitude to unlawfully take what is not theirs. Efforts aimed at protecting intellectual property are limited to crop up gateways that show lengthy legal documents establish ownership; it does not provide enforcement of tracking stolen intellectual property in the digital world. Copy right protection is one of the proposed solutions for protection of intellectual property. In this paper, we propose an efficient object oriented approach for the copyright protection. This approach can embed an entire image as a watermark into the original image for indicating the copyright. The performance of the proposed technique is better compared to other techniques like Discrete Cosine Transforms, Discrete Wavelet Transforms. It can extract better-quality watermarks and it takes little time to embed and extract the watermark.

Implementation of object oriented approach for copyright protection using Hadamard transforms

Backgrounds Effective management of BK viremia (BKPyV-DNAemia) in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) involves regular monitoring and adjustment of immunosuppression. With this strategy, the majority of patients will clear BK or have ongoing, but non-significant, low-level BKPyV-DNAemia. However, despite adjustments, some will develop more severe sequelae of BK including BKPyV-DNAemia >5 log10 copies/mL and BK nephropathy, and others may develop de novo DSA (dnDSA) or acute rejection (AR). Methods This was a single-center study of KTRs transplanted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison between 01/01/2015 and 12/31/2017. In this study, we sought to elucidate characteristics associated with the progression of BKPyV-DNAemia to unfavorable outcomes after decreasing immunosuppressive medications for the management of BK viremia as described in consensus guidelines. Results A total of 224 KTRs fulfilled our selection criteria; 118 (53%) resolved or had persistent low DNAemia, 64 (28%) had severe BK/nephropathy, and 42 (19%) developed dnDSA or AR. In multivariable analysis, female gender (HR: 2.05; 95% CI: 1.08-3.90; P = .02); previous rejection (HR: 2.90; 95% CI: 1.04-8.12; P = .04), and early infection (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.72-0.90; P 3 (HR: 2.27; HR: 1.01-5.06; P = .04), and delayed graft function (HR: 4.14; 95% CI: 1.12-15.28; P = .03) were associated with development of dnDSA and/or rejection. Conclusion Our study suggests that almost half of KTRs with BKPyV-DNAemia managed by our immunosuppressant adjustment protocol progress unfavorably. Identification of these risk factors could assist the frontline clinician in creating an individualized immunosuppressive modification plan potentially mitigating negative outcomes.

Risk factors for progression from low level BK dnaemia to unfavorable outcomes after BK management via immunosuppressive reduction.

Chaos follow the leader algorithm: Application to data classification

Segmentation optimization in trajectory-based ship classification

An analysis over trajectory segmentation techniques is carried out by the study of the different algorithms and the experimentation over a ship classification problem, which use a data preparation and classification system used in previous works. With the data preparation, the system handles real-world Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, cleaning wrong measurements and smoothening the trajectories by the application of an Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) filter. Also applies some balancing algorithms to address the lack of an equal distribution among classes. To correctly evaluate the classification with the imbalanced data a multiple objective analysis is proposed to consider the minority class and the global accuracy. Over that multi-objective analysis, different segmentation algorithms and its variations are tested to analyze the influence of them into the classification problem. The results show a Pareto front with different viable solutions for the proposed multi-objective problem, without a dominant algorithm over rest of the tested segmentation algorithms.

Segmentation Optimization in Trajectory-Based Ship Classification

This article presents a new and robust watermarking method in the frequency domain that improves over the existing ones. It is robust to JPEG compression, very configurable, simple, efficient and very easy to implement. Apart from JPEG test, it shows very good results in all tests applied.

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Robust New Method in Frequency Domain Watermarking

PURPOSE The study's aim was to assess whether polyomavirus DNAemia screening was associated with different outcomes in patients with positive viremia compared with negative viremia. METHODS Case-control retrospective study of patients with polyomavirus DNAemia (viremia > 1000 copies/mL) matched 1:1 with controls. Control group consists of the patient who received a transplant immediately before or after each identified case and did have nil viremia. FINDING Ultimately, 120 cases of BK polyomavirus (BKPyV) were detected and matched with 130 controls. Of these, 54 were adult kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), 43 were pediatric KTRs, and 23 were undergoing hemato-oncologic therapy, of which 20 were undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The odds ratio (OR) for overall risk of poorer outcomes in cases versus controls was 16.07 (95% CI: 5.55-46.54). The unfavorable outcome of switching the immunosuppressive drug (ISD) (14/40,35%) was no different from that of those treated with reduced ISD doses (31/71, 43.6%, P = .250). Acute rejection or graft-versus-host disease, previous transplant, and intensity of immunosuppression (4 ISDs plus induction or conditioning) were risk factors for BKPyV-DNAemia (OR: 13.96, 95% CI: 11.25-15.18, P < .001; OR: 6.14, 95% CI: 3.91-8.80, P < .001; OR: 5.53, 95% CI: 3.37-7.30, P < .001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Despite viremia screening, dose reduction, and change in therapeutic protocol, patients with positive BKPyV-DNAemia present poorer outcomes and unfavorable results.

David Sánchez

Papers

Segmentation Optimization in Trajectory-Based Ship Classification

Robust New Method in Frequency Domain Watermarking

A case-control study to assess the role of polyomavirus in transplant complications: Where do we stand?