A feature-based robust digital image watermarking scheme using bandelet transform

Desynchronization attacks are among the most difficult attacks to resist, for it can desynchronize the location of the watermark and hence cause incorrect watermark detection. The design of an image watermarking scheme that is robust against desynchronization attacks is challenging. Based on a multi-scale SIFT (scale invariant feature transform) detector and Bandelet transform theory, we propose a new content based image watermarking algorithm with good visual quality and reasonable resistance toward desynchronization attacks. Firstly, the stable image feature points are extracted from the original host by using the multi-scale SIFT detector, and the local feature regions (LFRs) are constructed adaptively according to the feature scale theory. The Bandelet transform is then performed on the LFRs. Finally, the digital watermark is embedded into the LFRs by modifying the significant Bandelet coefficients. By binding the watermark with the geometrically invariant image features, the watermark detection can be done without synchronization error. Experimental results show that the proposed image watermarking is not only invisible and robust against common signal processing such as sharpening, noise adding, JPEG compression, etc., but also robust against the desynchronization attacks such as rotation, translation, scaling, row or column removal, cropping, etc.     

Randomness versus nonlocality and entanglement

The outcomes obtained in Bell tests involving two-outcome measurements on two subsystems can, in principle, generate up to 2?bits of randomness. However, the maximal violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality guarantees the generation of only 1.23?bits of randomness. We prove here that quantum correlations with arbitrarily little nonlocality and states with arbitrarily little entanglement can be used to certify that close to the maximum of 2?bits of randomness are produced. Our results show that nonlocality, entanglement, and randomness are inequivalent quantities. They also imply that device-independent quantum key distribution with an optimal key generation rate is possible by using almost-local correlations and that device-independent randomness generation with an optimal rate is possible with almost-local correlations and with almost-unentangled states.     

A fast optical profilometer

A simple optical profilometer is described for the measurement of surface profiles. The device is based on the use of a photodiode array that allows a fast examination of the surface and a high sensitivity. It also overcomes the randomness requirements which limit the use of optical devices working on angular diagram or speckle correlation measurements. Preliminary measurements of workpieces profiles are shown.     

随机的长程关联对耦合细胞体系中钙信号传导的作用

利用Euler数值积分的方法,研究了随机的长程关联对耦合细胞体系中钙信号传播的影响,发现当细 胞链中第一个单元受到外界刺激的作用时,由此而引起的钙点火活动会进一步激发其邻近的细胞,在随机连接的 作用下,钙信号就会在整个链中向下传递.结果表明,在该体系中加上少量的随机连接不仅能够极大地增强细胞 之间钙信号的传播能力,而且,适量的这种连接也可以使整个体系的钙离子振荡的有序性得到加强.这些现象表 明,细胞之间的随机扩散联系可能在帮助生物体系进行信息传递的过程中起着十分重要的作用.     

Cytotoxic Activity and DNA-binding Properties of Xanthone Derivatives

In this study, the interactions of different groups substituted xanthone derivatives with calf thymus DNA (ct DNA) have been investigated by spectrophotometric methods and viscosity measurements. Results indicate that xanthone derivatives can intercalate into the DNA base pairs by the plane of xanthone ring and the various substituents may influence the binding affinity with DNA according to the calculated quenching constant values and the melting temperature of DNA. Furthermore, three tumor cell lines including esophagus squamous cancer cell line (ECA109), stomach cancer cell line (SGC7901) and lung cancer cell line (GLC-82) have been used to evaluate the cytotoxic activities of xanthone derivatives by MTT (microculture tetrazolium) method. Analysis show that the oxiranylmethoxy or piperidinylethoxy substituted xanthones exhibit more effective cytotoxic activity against three cancer cells than the other substituted xanthones. The effects on the inhibition of tumor cells in vitro agree with the studies of DNA-binding.     

Mechanism of desynchronization in the finite-dimensional Kuramoto model

We study how a decrease of the coupling strength causes a desynchronization in the Kuramoto model of N globally coupled phase oscillators. We show that, if the natural frequencies are distributed uniformly or close to that, the synchronized state can robustly split into any number of phase clusters with different average frequencies, even culminating in complete desynchronization. In the simplest case of N=3 phase oscillators, the course of the splitting is controlled by a Cherry flow. The general N-dimensional desynchronization mechanism is numerically illustrated for N=5.     

Order Parameter Hysteresis on the Complex Network

Collective synchronization is investigated on the small-world network （NW model）. The order parameter is introduced to measure the synchronization of phase. It is found that there are differences between the processes of synchronization and desynchronization. The dependence of order parameter on the coupling strength is shown like a hysteresis loop. The size of the loop demonstrates the non-monotonicity with the change of adding probability, and is relevant to the construction of the network. The area may be maximum, as the adding probability is equal to 0.4. This phenomenon indicates that the clusters in the network play an important role in the processes of synchronization and desynchronization.     

Desynchronization bifurcation of coupled nonlinear dynamical systems

We analyze the desynchronization bifurcation in the coupled Ro?ssler oscillators. After the bifurcation the coupled oscillators move away from each other with a square root dependence on the parameter. We define system transverse Lyapunov exponents (STLE), and in the desynchronized state one is positive while the other is negative. We give a simple model of coupled integrable systems with quadratic nonlinearity that shows a similar phenomenon. We conclude that desynchronization is a pitchfork bifurcation of the transverse manifold. Cubic nonlinearity also shows the bifurcation, but in this case the STLEs are both negative.     

A vectorizable random lattice

We describe a family of random lattices in which the connectivity is determined by the Voronoi construction while the vectorizability is not lost. We can continuously vary the degree of randomness so in a certain limit a regular lattice is recovered. Several statistical properties of the cells and bonds of these lattices are measured. We also study anisotropy effects on the numerical solution of the Laplace equation for varying degrees of randomness.     

Ultrasound exposure in the presence of hematoporphyrin induced loss of membrane integral proteins and inactivity of cell proliferation associated enzymes in sarcoma 180 cells in vitro

Ultrasonically induced effects of hematoporphyrin (HPD) on cell damage and membrane protein alteration of S180 isolated tumor cells in vitro were investigated, and the potential mechanisms of sonodynamic therapy (SDT) inhibiting tumor growth were discussed. Tumor cells suspended in air-saturated PBS (pH 7.2) were exposed to ultrasound at 1.8 MHz for up to 180 s in the presence and absence of HPD. The viability of cells was determined by a trypan blue exclusion test. To estimate the damage effects of SDT on plasma membrane of tumor cells primarily, membrane integral proteins (EGFR, Ras, Fas, FasL) and cell proliferation associated enzymes (adenylate cyclase and guanylate cyclase) were checked with immunochemical methods. The results indicated that the intensity threshold for ultrasonically induced cell damage at 1.8 MHz was 3 W/cm². At this condition, the expression of the integral proteins was obviously inhibited and the activity of the enzymes was decreased post ultrasound treatment in the presence of 20 μg/ml HPD. Loss of the membrane proteins and inactivity of AC and GC post SDT was time-dependent. This paper reveals SDT can cause the loss of tumor cell membrane integral proteins and inactivity of the enzymes associated with cell proliferation which might be attributed to a sonochemical activation mechanism. The mechanisms by that tumor growth is inhibited by SDT can be understood as that the growth signaling pathway is partially interdicted and the resistance of tumor cells to the specifically activated immune cells is weakened.     

Distribution of NMR relaxations in a random Heisenberg chain

NMR measurements of the (29)Si spin-lattice relaxation time T(1) were used to probe the spin-1/2 random Heisenberg chain compound BaCu(2)(Si(1-x)Ge(x))(2)O(7). Remarkable differences between the pure (x=0) and the fully random (x=0.5) cases are observed, indicating that randomness generates a distribution of local magnetic relaxations. This distribution, which is reflected in a stretched exponential NMR relaxation, exhibits a progressive broadening with decreasing temperature, caused by a growing inequivalence of magnetic sites. Compelling independent evidence for the influence of randomness is also obtained from magnetization data and Monte Carlo calculations. These results suggest the formation of random-singlet states in this class of materials, as previously predicted by theory.     

Improved quantum randomness amplification with finite number of untrusted devices based on a novel extractor

Quantum randomness amplification protocols have increasingly attracted attention for their fantastic ability to amplify weak randomness to almost ideal randomness by utilizing quantum systems. Recently, a realistic noise-tolerant randomness amplification protocol using a finite number of untrusted devices was proposed. The protocol has the composable security against non-signalling eavesdroppers and could produce a single bit of randomness from weak randomness sources, which is certified by the violation of certain Bell inequalities. However, the protocol has a non-ignorable limitation on the minentropy of independent sources. In this paper, we further develop the randomness amplification method and present a novel quantum randomness amplification protocol based on an explicit non-malleable two independent-source randomness extractor, which could remarkably reduce the above-mentioned specific limitation. Moreover, the composable security of our improved protocol is also proposed. Our results could significantly expand the application range for practical quantum randomness amplification, and provide a new insight on the practical design method for randomness extraction.     

Detecting synchronizations in an asymmetric vocal fold model from time series data

A nonlinear modeling approach is presented for the reconstruction of the synchronization structure in an asymmetric two-mass model from time series data. The asymmetric two-mass model describes a variety of normal and pathological human voices associated with synchronous and desynchronous oscillations of the two asymmetric vocal folds. Our technique recovers the synchronization diagram, which yields the regimes of synchronization as well as desynchronization, which are dependent upon the asymmetry parameter and the subglottal pressure. This allows the prediction of the regime of pathological phonation associated with desynchronization of the vocal folds from a few sets of recorded time series. It is shown that the modeling is quite effective when the time series data are chaotic and if they are taken from a regime of desynchronization. We discuss the applicability of the present approach as a diagnostic tool for voice pathologies.     

Bridging rate coding and temporal spike coding by effect of noise

It is controversial whether temporal spike coding or rate coding is dominant in the information processing of the brain. We show by a two-layered neural network model with noise that, when noise is small, cortical neurons fire synchronously and intervals of synchronous firing robustly encode the signal information, but that the neurons desynchronize with moderately strong noise to encode waveforms of the signal more accurately. Further increase of noise just deteriorates the encoding. A positive role of noise in the brain is suggested in a meaning different from stochastic resonance, coherence resonance, and deterministic chaos.     

A real space approach to study the effect of off-diagonal disorder on superconductivity

We present an efficient numerical methodology to study the effect of off-diagonal randomness on superconductivity. This is a real space approach using Bogoliubov-de-Gennes (BdG) method coupled with augmented space vector recursion (ASVR) technique for disorder averaging. We find in the presence of off-diagonal randomness s-wave superconductivity is favoured by greater hopping integral strength between similar species as compared to that between dissimilar ones and d-wave superconductivity is suppressed by off-diagonal randomness much like diagonal randomness. Combined diagonal and off-diagonal randomness leads to asymmetry in both the normal as well as the superconducting densities of states.     

A Foundational Principle for Quantum Mechanics

In contrast to the theories of relativity, quantum mechanics is not yet based on a generally accepted conceptual foundation. It is proposed here that the missing principle may be identified through the observation that all knowledge in physics has to be expressed in propositions and that therefore the most elementary system represents the truth value of one proposition, i.e., it carries just one bit of information. Therefore an elementary system can only give a definite result in one specific measurement. The irreducible randomness in other measurements is then a necessary consequence. For composite systems entanglement results if all possible information is exhausted in specifying joint properties of the constituents.     

Comparison of mechanical properties of normal and malignant thyroid cells

Cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell proliferation causing approximately 13% of deaths worldwide. Cancer cell mechanics is currently an important topic of investigation in cancer diagnostics as a possible tool to distinguish malignant cells from normal cells in addition to increasing our understanding of pathophysiology of the disease. Our study, based on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measurements on cells, shows that malignant thyroid cells are 3- to 5-fold softer in comparison to primary normal thyroid cells depending on duration between cell seeding and AFM experiments. These results reveal cultivation period as an important factor that influences cell mechanics and which must be considered when comparing cells. Investigation of actin cytoskeleton by fluorescent labelling revealed differences in organization of actin between malignant and normal thyroid cells, which may be directly contributing to alteration of cell mechanics in cancer cells.     

Hourglass model for a protein-based circadian oscillator

Many organisms possess internal biochemical clocks, known as circadian oscillators, which allow them to regulate their biological activity with a 24-hour period. It was recently discovered that the circadian oscillator of photosynthetic cyanobacteria is able to function in a test tube with only three proteins, KaiA, KaiB, and KaiC, and ATP. Biochemical events are intrinsically stochastic, and this tends to desynchronize oscillating protein populations. We propose that stability of the Kai-protein oscillator relies on active synchronization by (i) monomer exchange between KaiC hexamers during the day, and (ii) formation of clusters of KaiC hexamers at night. Our results highlight the importance of collective assembly or disassembly of proteins in biochemical networks, and may help guide design of novel protein-based oscillators.     

一种发光二极管模型中无序光子晶体对光输出影响的研究

摘要利用Order-N算法及超晶格技术讨论了位置无序及尺寸无序对石墨点阵柱状光子晶体光子带隙的影响.计算结果表明，对于电场偏振模，光子带隙对尺寸无序更加敏感.在此基础上，利用三维时域有限差分方法进一步讨论了无序光子晶体对石墨点阵柱状中心柱光子晶体GaN发光二极管模型光输出效率的影响.计算结果表明，无序对这种光子晶体发光二极管模型光输出效率的影响较小，且这种影响也是随机的.     

Localization in a one-dimensional disordered model

Numerical investigation of a random, one dimensional Kronig-Penny-like model is performed using long chains and large ensembles. Dependence of the inverse localization length α on randomness, irreproducibility of resistance measurements and the dependence of the standard deviation of α on α and the length of the chain were studied. For energies, E=k² close to the zone boundary k=π, we have found α～(π-k).