Search results for: image quality assessment metric
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 5494

Search results for: image quality assessment metric

4984 Automatic Clustering of Gene Ontology by Genetic Algorithm

Authors: Razib M. Othman, Safaai Deris, Rosli M. Illias, Zalmiyah Zakaria, Saberi M. Mohamad

Abstract:

Nowadays, Gene Ontology has been used widely by many researchers for biological data mining and information retrieval, integration of biological databases, finding genes, and incorporating knowledge in the Gene Ontology for gene clustering. However, the increase in size of the Gene Ontology has caused problems in maintaining and processing them. One way to obtain their accessibility is by clustering them into fragmented groups. Clustering the Gene Ontology is a difficult combinatorial problem and can be modeled as a graph partitioning problem. Additionally, deciding the number k of clusters to use is not easily perceived and is a hard algorithmic problem. Therefore, an approach for solving the automatic clustering of the Gene Ontology is proposed by incorporating cohesion-and-coupling metric into a hybrid algorithm consisting of a genetic algorithm and a split-and-merge algorithm. Experimental results and an example of modularized Gene Ontology in RDF/XML format are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Keywords: Automatic clustering, cohesion-and-coupling metric, gene ontology; genetic algorithm, split-and-merge algorithm.

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4983 An Evaluation of Tourism Education in Nigeria’s Higher Institutions

Authors: Eldah Ephraim Buba

Abstract:

This paper evaluated the quality of tourism education in Nigeria higher education. The problem of poor quality of tourism education in Nigeria’s higher institutions prompted the study. Archival research was used with evaluation reports as secondary data, twenty evaluation reports for different polytechnics from the National board for technical education (NBTE) from 1995-2012 were assessed. The evidence from the documents shows that the quality of teaching and evaluation is fair. The programmes resources are fairly good, and most of the teachers do not have a postgraduate qualification in tourism related courses. It is therefore recommended that the institutions running tourism programmes in Nigeria need to introduce self -assessment of programmes and not rely on the NBTE accreditation which comes up in three years. Also there is need for a staff development policy that will encourage Tourism educators to further their education; The Tertiary Educational Trust Fund (TETFUND) should focus on developing staff of tourism education because it is an area of study in Nigeria that lacks qualified personnel. With the way higher institution in Nigeria are finding interest in tourism programmes, having good quality programmes will not only produce better professionals but it will help in offering better services in the industry and maximizing the impacts of the business.

Keywords: Education, evaluation tourism, quality.

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4982 Effect Comparison of Speckle Noise Reduction Filters on 2D-Echocardigraphic Images

Authors: Faten A. Dawood, Rahmita W. Rahmat, Suhaini B. Kadiman, Lili N. Abdullah, Mohd D. Zamrin

Abstract:

Echocardiography imaging is one of the most common diagnostic tests that are widely used for assessing the abnormalities of the regional heart ventricle function. The main goal of the image enhancement task in 2D-echocardiography (2DE) is to solve two major anatomical structure problems; speckle noise and low quality. Therefore, speckle noise reduction is one of the important steps that used as a pre-processing to reduce the distortion effects in 2DE image segmentation. In this paper, we present the common filters that based on some form of low-pass spatial smoothing filters such as Mean, Gaussian, and Median. The Laplacian filter was used as a high-pass sharpening filter. A comparative analysis was presented to test the effectiveness of these filters after being applied to original 2DE images of 4-chamber and 2-chamber views. Three statistical quantity measures: root mean square error (RMSE), peak signal-to-ratio (PSNR) and signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) are used to evaluate the filter performance quantitatively on the output enhanced image.

Keywords: Gaussian operator, median filter, speckle texture, peak signal-to-ratio

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4981 Image Thresholding for Weld Defect Extraction in Industrial Radiographic Testing

Authors: Nafaâ Nacereddine, Latifa Hamami, Djemel Ziou

Abstract:

In non destructive testing by radiography, a perfect knowledge of the weld defect shape is an essential step to appreciate the quality of the weld and make decision on its acceptability or rejection. Because of the complex nature of the considered images, and in order that the detected defect region represents the most accurately possible the real defect, the choice of thresholding methods must be done judiciously. In this paper, performance criteria are used to conduct a comparative study of thresholding methods based on gray level histogram, 2-D histogram and locally adaptive approach for weld defect extraction in radiographic images.

Keywords: 1D and 2D histogram, locally adaptive approach, performance criteria, radiographic image, thresholding, weld defect.

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4980 Adaptive Anisotropic Diffusion for Ultrasonic Image Denoising and Edge Enhancement

Authors: Shujun Fu, Qiuqi Ruan, Wenqia Wang, Yu Li

Abstract:

Utilizing echoic intension and distribution from different organs and local details of human body, ultrasonic image can catch important medical pathological changes, which unfortunately may be affected by ultrasonic speckle noise. A feature preserving ultrasonic image denoising and edge enhancement scheme is put forth, which includes two terms: anisotropic diffusion and edge enhancement, controlled by the optimum smoothing time. In this scheme, the anisotropic diffusion is governed by the local coordinate transformation and the first and the second order normal derivatives of the image, while the edge enhancement is done by the hyperbolic tangent function. Experiments on real ultrasonic images indicate effective preservation of edges, local details and ultrasonic echoic bright strips on denoising by our scheme.

Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, coordinate transformation, directional derivatives, edge enhancement, hyperbolic tangent function, image denoising.

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4979 A Nonoblivious Image Watermarking System Based on Singular Value Decomposition and Texture Segmentation

Authors: Soroosh Rezazadeh, Mehran Yazdi

Abstract:

In this paper, a robust digital image watermarking scheme for copyright protection applications using the singular value decomposition (SVD) is proposed. In this scheme, an entropy masking model has been applied on the host image for the texture segmentation. Moreover, the local luminance and textures of the host image are considered for watermark embedding procedure to increase the robustness of the watermarking scheme. In contrast to all existing SVD-based watermarking systems that have been designed to embed visual watermarks, our system uses a pseudo-random sequence as a watermark. We have tested the performance of our method using a wide variety of image processing attacks on different test images. A comparison is made between the results of our proposed algorithm with those of a wavelet-based method to demonstrate the superior performance of our algorithm.

Keywords: Watermarking, copyright protection, singular value decomposition, entropy masking, texture segmentation.

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4978 Maximizer of the Posterior Marginal Estimate for Noise Reduction of JPEG-compressed Image

Authors: Yohei Saika, Yuji Haraguchi

Abstract:

We constructed a method of noise reduction for JPEG-compressed image based on Bayesian inference using the maximizer of the posterior marginal (MPM) estimate. In this method, we tried the MPM estimate using two kinds of likelihood, both of which enhance grayscale images converted into the JPEG-compressed image through the lossy JPEG image compression. One is the deterministic model of the likelihood and the other is the probabilistic one expressed by the Gaussian distribution. Then, using the Monte Carlo simulation for grayscale images, such as the 256-grayscale standard image “Lena" with 256 × 256 pixels, we examined the performance of the MPM estimate based on the performance measure using the mean square error. We clarified that the MPM estimate via the Gaussian probabilistic model of the likelihood is effective for reducing noises, such as the blocking artifacts and the mosquito noise, if we set parameters appropriately. On the other hand, we found that the MPM estimate via the deterministic model of the likelihood is not effective for noise reduction due to the low acceptance ratio of the Metropolis algorithm.

Keywords: Noise reduction, JPEG-compressed image, Bayesian inference, the maximizer of the posterior marginal estimate

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4977 Highly Scalable, Reversible and Embedded Image Compression System

Authors: Federico Pérez González, Iñaki Goiricelaia Ordorika, Pedro Iriondo Bengoa

Abstract:

A new method for low complexity image coding is presented, that permits different settings and great scalability in the generation of the final bit stream. This coding presents a continuoustone still image compression system that groups loss and lossless compression making use of finite arithmetic reversible transforms. Both transformation in the space of color and wavelet transformation are reversible. The transformed coefficients are coded by means of a coding system in depending on a subdivision into smaller components (CFDS) similar to the bit importance codification. The subcomponents so obtained are reordered by means of a highly configure alignment system depending on the application that makes possible the re-configure of the elements of the image and obtaining different levels of importance from which the bit stream will be generated. The subcomponents of each level of importance are coded using a variable length entropy coding system (VBLm) that permits the generation of an embedded bit stream. This bit stream supposes itself a bit stream that codes a compressed still image. However, the use of a packing system on the bit stream after the VBLm allows the realization of a final highly scalable bit stream from a basic image level and one or several enhance levels.

Keywords: Image compression, wavelet transform, highlyscalable, reversible transform, embedded, subcomponents.

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4976 Reversible Medical Image Watermarking For Tamper Detection And Recovery With Run Length Encoding Compression

Authors: Siau-Chuin Liew, Siau-Way Liew, Jasni Mohd Zain

Abstract:

Digital watermarking in medical images can ensure the authenticity and integrity of the image. This design paper reviews some existing watermarking schemes and proposes a reversible tamper detection and recovery watermarking scheme. Watermark data from ROI (Region Of Interest) are stored in RONI (Region Of Non Interest). The embedded watermark allows tampering detection and tampered image recovery. The watermark is also reversible and data compression technique was used to allow higher embedding capacity.

Keywords: data compression, medical image, reversible, tamperdetection and recovery, watermark.

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4975 A Proposal for U-City (Smart City) Service Method Using Real-Time Digital Map

Authors: SangWon Han, MuWook Pyeon, Sujung Moon, DaeKyo Seo

Abstract:

Recently, technologies based on three-dimensional (3D) space information are being developed and quality of life is improving as a result. Research on real-time digital map (RDM) is being conducted now to provide 3D space information. RDM is a service that creates and supplies 3D space information in real time based on location/shape detection. Research subjects on RDM include the construction of 3D space information with matching image data, complementing the weaknesses of image acquisition using multi-source data, and data collection methods using big data. Using RDM will be effective for space analysis using 3D space information in a U-City and for other space information utilization technologies.

Keywords: RDM, multi-source data, big data, U-City.

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4974 Image Enhancement Algorithm of Photoacoustic Tomography Using Active Contour Filtering

Authors: Prasannakumar Palaniappan, Dong Ho Shin, Chul Gyu Song

Abstract:

The photoacoustic images are obtained from a custom developed linear array photoacoustic tomography system. The biological specimens are imitated by conducting phantom tests in order to retrieve a fully functional photoacoustic image. The acquired image undergoes the active region based contour filtering to remove the noise and accurately segment the object area for further processing. The universal back projection method is used as the image reconstruction algorithm. The active contour filtering is analyzed by evaluating the signal to noise ratio and comparing it with the other filtering methods.

Keywords: Contour filtering, linear array, photoacoustic tomography, universal back projection.

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4973 A Real-Time Image Change Detection System

Authors: Madina Hamiane, Amina Khunji

Abstract:

Detecting changes in multiple images of the same scene has recently seen increased interest due to the many contemporary applications including smart security systems, smart homes, remote sensing, surveillance, medical diagnosis, weather forecasting, speed and distance measurement, post-disaster forensics and much more. These applications differ in the scale, nature, and speed of change. This paper presents an application of image processing techniques to implement a real-time change detection system. Change is identified by comparing the RGB representation of two consecutive frames captured in real-time. The detection threshold can be controlled to account for various luminance levels. The comparison result is passed through a filter before decision making to reduce false positives, especially at lower luminance conditions. The system is implemented with a MATLAB Graphical User interface with several controls to manage its operation and performance.

Keywords: Image change detection, Image processing, image filtering, thresholding, B/W quantization.

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4972 Fast Wavelet Image Denoising Based on Local Variance and Edge Analysis

Authors: Gaoyong Luo

Abstract:

The approach based on the wavelet transform has been widely used for image denoising due to its multi-resolution nature, its ability to produce high levels of noise reduction and the low level of distortion introduced. However, by removing noise, high frequency components belonging to edges are also removed, which leads to blurring the signal features. This paper proposes a new method of image noise reduction based on local variance and edge analysis. The analysis is performed by dividing an image into 32 x 32 pixel blocks, and transforming the data into wavelet domain. Fast lifting wavelet spatial-frequency decomposition and reconstruction is developed with the advantages of being computationally efficient and boundary effects minimized. The adaptive thresholding by local variance estimation and edge strength measurement can effectively reduce image noise while preserve the features of the original image corresponding to the boundaries of the objects. Experimental results demonstrate that the method performs well for images contaminated by natural and artificial noise, and is suitable to be adapted for different class of images and type of noises. The proposed algorithm provides a potential solution with parallel computation for real time or embedded system application.

Keywords: Edge strength, Fast lifting wavelet, Image denoising, Local variance.

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4971 Image Sensor Matrix High Speed Simulation

Authors: Z. Feng, V. Viswanathan, D. Navarro, I. O'Connor

Abstract:

This paper presents a new high speed simulation methodology to solve the long simulation time problem of CMOS image sensor matrix. Generally, for integrating the pixel matrix in SOC and simulating the system performance, designers try to model the pixel in various modeling languages such as VHDL-AMS, SystemC or Matlab. We introduce a new alternative method based on spice model in cadence design platform to achieve accuracy and reduce simulation time. The simulation results indicate that the pixel output voltage maximum error is at 0.7812% and time consumption reduces from 2.2 days to 13 minutes achieving about 240X speed-up for the 256x256 pixel matrix.

Keywords: CMOS image sensor, high speed simulation, image sensor matrix simulation.

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4970 The Application of Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the Czech Financial Market

Authors: Jana Chvalkovska, Petr Jansky, Petr Teply

Abstract:

The impact assessment in its various forms has recently become a very important part of policy-making and legislation in many different countries. Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is yet another set of analytical methods deployed in the legislation of the European Union, of many developed countries as well as in many developing ones such as Mexico, Malaysia and Philippines. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical background for economic models in regulatory impact assessment and an overview of their application especially on the financial market in the Czech Republic. We found out an inadequate application of these models, what makes room for further research in this field.

Keywords: regulatory impact assessment, RIA, impact evaluation, building societies, Czech Republic

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4969 An Improved C-Means Model for MRI Segmentation

Authors: Ying Shen, Weihua Zhu

Abstract:

Medical images are important to help identifying different diseases, for example, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to investigate the brain, spinal cord, bones, joints, breasts, blood vessels, and heart. Image segmentation, in medical image analysis, is usually the first step to find out some characteristics with similar color, intensity or texture so that the diagnosis could be further carried out based on these features. This paper introduces an improved C-means model to segment the MRI images. The model is based on information entropy to evaluate the segmentation results by achieving global optimization. Several contributions are significant. Firstly, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for achieving global optimization in this model where fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm (FCMA) is not capable of doing that. Secondly, the information entropy after segmentation is used for measuring the effectiveness of MRI image processing. Experimental results show the outperformance of the proposed model by comparing with traditional approaches.

Keywords: Magnetic Resonance Image, C-means model, image segmentation, information entropy.

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4968 Retrospective Synthetic Focusing with Correlation Weighting for Very High Frame Rate Ultrasound

Authors: Chang-Lin Hu, Yao-You Cheng, Meng-Lin Li

Abstract:

The need of high frame-rate imaging has been triggered by the new applications of ultrasound imaging to transient elastography and real-time 3D ultrasound. Using plane wave excitation (PWE) is one of the methods to achieve very high frame-rate imaging since an image can be formed with a single insonification. However, due to the lack of transmit focusing, the image quality with PWE is lower compared with those using conventional focused transmission. To solve this problem, we propose a filter-retrieved transmit focusing (FRF) technique combined with cross-correlation weighting (FRF+CC weighting) for high frame-rate imaging with PWE. A restrospective focusing filter is designed to simultaneously minimize the predefined sidelobe energy associated with single PWE and the filter energy related to the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR). This filter attempts to maintain the mainlobe signals and to reduce the sidelobe ones, which gives similar mainlobe signals and different sidelobes between the original PWE and the FRF baseband data. Normalized cross-correlation coefficient at zero lag is calculated to quantify the degree of similarity at each imaging point and used as a weighting matrix to the FRF baseband data to further suppress sidelobes, thus improving the filter-retrieved focusing quality.

Keywords: retrospective synthetic focusing, high frame rate, correlation weighting.

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4967 Encryption Image via Mutual Singular Value Decomposition

Authors: Adil Al-Rammahi

Abstract:

Image or document encryption is needed through egovernment data base. Really in this paper we introduce two matrices images, one is the public, and the second is the secret (original). The analyses of each matrix is achieved using the transformation of singular values decomposition. So each matrix is transformed or analyzed to three matrices say row orthogonal basis, column orthogonal basis, and spectral diagonal basis. Product of the two row basis is calculated. Similarly the product of the two column basis is achieved. Finally we transform or save the files of public, row product and column product. In decryption stage, the original image is deduced by mutual method of the three public files.

Keywords: Image cryptography, Singular values decomposition.

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4966 Peer Assessment in the Context of Project-Based Learning Online

Authors: Y. Benjelloun Touimi, N. Faddouli, S. Bennani, M. Khalidi Idrissi

Abstract:

The pedagogy project has been proven as an active learning method, which is used to develop learner-s skills and knowledge.The use of technology in the learning world, has filed several gaps in the implementation of teaching methods, and online evaluation of learners. However, the project methodology presents challenges in the assessment of learners online. Indeed, interoperability between E-learning platforms (LMS) is one of the major challenges of project-based learning assessment. Firstly, we have reviewed the characteristics of online assessment in the context of project-based teaching. We addressed the constraints encountered during the peer evaluation process. Our approach is to propose a meta-model, which will describe a language dedicated to the conception of peer assessment scenario in project-based learning. Then we illustrate our proposal by an instantiation of the meta-model through a business process in a scenario of collaborative assessment on line.

Keywords: Online project based learning, meta-model, peer assessment process.

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4965 Sustainability Analysis and Quality Assessment of Rainwater Harvested from Green Roofs: A Review

Authors: Mst. Nilufa Sultana, Shatirah Akib, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, Mohamed Roseli Zainal Abidin

Abstract:

Most people today are aware that global climate change is not just a scientific theory but also a fact with worldwide consequences. Global climate change is due to rapid urbanization, industrialization, high population growth and current vulnerability of the climatic condition. Water is becoming scarce as a result of global climate change. To mitigate the problem arising due to global climate change and its drought effect, harvesting rainwater from green roofs, an environmentally-friendly and versatile technology, is becoming one of the best assessment criteria and gaining attention in Malaysia. This paper addresses the sustainability of green roofs and examines the quality of water harvested from green roofs in comparison to rainwater. The factors that affect the quality of such water, taking into account, for example, roofing materials, climatic conditions, the frequency of rainfall frequency and the first flush. A green roof was installed on the Humid Tropic Centre (HTC) is a place of the study on monitoring program for urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA), Eco-Hydrological Project in Kuala Lumpur, and the rainwater was harvested and evaluated on the basis of four parameters i.e., conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and temperature. These parameters were found to fall between Class I and Class III of the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) and the Water Quality Index (WQI). Some preliminary treatment such as disinfection and filtration could likely to improve the value of these parameters to class I. This review paper clearly indicates that there is a need for more research to address other microbiological and chemical quality parameters to ensure that the harvested water is suitable for use potable water for domestic purposes. The change in all physical, chemical and microbiological parameters with respect to storage time will be a major focus of future studies in this field.

Keywords: Green roofs, INWQS, MSMA-SME, Rainwater harvesting.

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4964 Image Segment Matching Using Affine- Invariant Regions

Authors: Ibrahim El rube'

Abstract:

In this paper, a method for matching image segments using triangle-based (geometrical) regions is proposed. Triangular regions are formed from triples of vertex points obtained from a keypoint detector (SIFT). However, triangle regions are subject to noise and distortion around the edges and vertices (especially acute angles). Therefore, these triangles are expanded into parallelogramshaped regions. The extracted image segments inherit an important triangle property; the invariance to affine distortion. Given two images, matching corresponding regions is conducted by computing the relative affine matrix, rectifying one of the regions w.r.t. the other one, then calculating the similarity between the reference and rectified region. The experimental tests show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithm against geometrical distortion.

Keywords: Image matching, key point detection, affine invariant, triangle-shaped segments.

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4963 Computer-Based Assessment of Pre-assigned Individual Education Plans in Special Education

Authors: Yasar Guneri Sahin, Mehmet Cudi Okur

Abstract:

Assessment of IEP (Individual Education Plan) is an important stage in the area of special education. This paper deals with this problem by introducing computer software which process the data gathered from application of IEP. The software is intended to be used by special education institution in Turkey and allows assessment of school and family trainings. The software has a user friendly interface and its design includes graphical developer tools.

Keywords: Disabled individual, software for education, assessment of education, special education.

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4962 Medical Image Edge Detection Based on Neuro-Fuzzy Approach

Authors: J. Mehena, M. C. Adhikary

Abstract:

Edge detection is one of the most important tasks in image processing. Medical image edge detection plays an important role in segmentation and object recognition of the human organs. It refers to the process of identifying and locating sharp discontinuities in medical images. In this paper, a neuro-fuzzy based approach is introduced to detect the edges for noisy medical images. This approach uses desired number of neuro-fuzzy subdetectors with a postprocessor for detecting the edges of medical images. The internal parameters of the approach are optimized by training pattern using artificial images. The performance of the approach is evaluated on different medical images and compared with popular edge detection algorithm. From the experimental results, it is clear that this approach has better performance than those of other competing edge detection algorithms for noisy medical images.

Keywords: Edge detection, neuro-fuzzy, image segmentation, artificial image, object recognition.

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4961 Perceived Quality of Regional Products in MS Region

Authors: M. Stoklasa, H. Starzyczna, K. Matusinska

Abstract:

This article deals with the perceived quality of regional products in the Moravian-Silesian region in the Czech Republic. Research was focused on finding out what do consumers perceive as a quality product and what characteristics make a quality product. The data were obtained by questionnaire survey andanalysed by IBM SPSS. From the thousands of respondents the representative sample of 719 for MS region was created based on demographic factors of gender, age, education and income. The research analysis disclosed that consumers in MS region are still price oriented and that the preference of quality over price does not depend on regional brand knowledge.

Keywords: Regional brands, quality products, characteristics of quality, quality over price.

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4960 Base Change for Fisher Metrics: Case of the q−Gaussian Inverse Distribution

Authors: Gabriel I. Loaiza O., Carlos A. Cadavid M., Juan C. Arango P.

Abstract:

It is known that the Riemannian manifold determined by the family of inverse Gaussian distributions endowed with the Fisher metric has negative constant curvature κ = −1/2 , as does the family of usual Gaussian distributions. In the present paper, firstly we arrive at this result by following a different path, much simpler than the previous ones. We first put the family in exponential form, thus endowing the family with a new set of parameters, or coordinates, θ1, θ2; then we determine the matrix of the Fisher metric in terms of these parameters; and finally we compute this matrix in the original parameters. Secondly, we define the Inverse q−Gaussian distribution family (q < 3), as the family obtained by replacing the usual exponential function by the Tsallis q−exponential function in the expression for the Inverse Gaussian distribution, and observe that it supports two possible geometries, the Fisher and the q−Fisher geometry. And finally, we apply our strategy to obtain results about the Fisher and q−Fisher geometry of the Inverse q−Gaussian distribution family, similar to the ones obtained in the case of the Inverse Gaussian distribution family.

Keywords: Base of Changes, Information Geometry, Inverse Gaussian distribution, Inverse q-Gaussian distribution, Statistical Manifolds.

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4959 Reversible, Embedded and Highly Scalable Image Compression System

Authors: Federico Pérez González, Iñaki Goirizelaia Ordorika, Pedro Iriondo Bengoa

Abstract:

In this work a new method for low complexity image coding is presented, that permits different settings and great scalability in the generation of the final bit stream. This coding presents a continuous-tone still image compression system that groups loss and lossless compression making use of finite arithmetic reversible transforms. Both transformation in the space of color and wavelet transformation are reversible. The transformed coefficients are coded by means of a coding system in depending on a subdivision into smaller components (CFDS) similar to the bit importance codification. The subcomponents so obtained are reordered by means of a highly configure alignment system depending on the application that makes possible the re-configure of the elements of the image and obtaining different importance levels from which the bit stream will be generated. The subcomponents of each importance level are coded using a variable length entropy coding system (VBLm) that permits the generation of an embedded bit stream. This bit stream supposes itself a bit stream that codes a compressed still image. However, the use of a packing system on the bit stream after the VBLm allows the realization of a final highly scalable bit stream from a basic image level and one or several improvement levels.

Keywords: Image compression, wavelet transform, highly scalable, reversible transform, embedded, subcomponents.

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4958 A Secure Semi-Fragile Watermarking Scheme for Authentication and Recovery of Images Based On Wavelet Transform

Authors: Rafiullah Chamlawi, Asifullah Khan, Adnan Idris, Zahid Munir

Abstract:

Authentication of multimedia contents has gained much attention in recent times. In this paper, we propose a secure semi-fragile watermarking, with a choice of two watermarks to be embedded. This technique operates in integer wavelet domain and makes use of semi fragile watermarks for achieving better robustness. A self-recovering algorithm is employed, that hides the image digest into some Wavelet subbands to detect possible malevolent object manipulation undergone by the image (object replacing and/or deletion). The Semi-fragility makes the scheme tolerant for JPEG lossy compression as low as quality of 70%, and locate the tempered area accurately. In addition, the system ensures more security because the embedded watermarks are protected with private keys. The computational complexity is reduced using parameterized integer wavelet transform. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme guarantees the safety of watermark, image recovery and location of the tempered area accurately.

Keywords: Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), JPEG Compression, Authentication and Self- Recovery.

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4957 Data Hiding in Images in Discrete Wavelet Domain Using PMM

Authors: Souvik Bhattacharyya, Gautam Sanyal

Abstract:

Over last two decades, due to hostilities of environment over the internet the concerns about confidentiality of information have increased at phenomenal rate. Therefore to safeguard the information from attacks, number of data/information hiding methods have evolved mostly in spatial and transformation domain.In spatial domain data hiding techniques,the information is embedded directly on the image plane itself. In transform domain data hiding techniques the image is first changed from spatial domain to some other domain and then the secret information is embedded so that the secret information remains more secure from any attack. Information hiding algorithms in time domain or spatial domain have high capacity and relatively lower robustness. In contrast, the algorithms in transform domain, such as DCT, DWT have certain robustness against some multimedia processing.In this work the authors propose a novel steganographic method for hiding information in the transform domain of the gray scale image.The proposed approach works by converting the gray level image in transform domain using discrete integer wavelet technique through lifting scheme.This approach performs a 2-D lifting wavelet decomposition through Haar lifted wavelet of the cover image and computes the approximation coefficients matrix CA and detail coefficients matrices CH, CV, and CD.Next step is to apply the PMM technique in those coefficients to form the stego image. The aim of this paper is to propose a high-capacity image steganography technique that uses pixel mapping method in integer wavelet domain with acceptable levels of imperceptibility and distortion in the cover image and high level of overall security. This solution is independent of the nature of the data to be hidden and produces a stego image with minimum degradation.

Keywords: Cover Image, Pixel Mapping Method (PMM), StegoImage, Integer Wavelet Tranform.

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4956 The Bodybuilding Passage to the Act of the Adolescent

Authors: L. Chikhani, H. Issa

Abstract:

Objective: this work focuses on bodybuilding as narcissistic inscription of the relational dynamic of the ego and the body, in this sense we think that this symptomatic adolescent act highlights a defective image of the body, leading, by a sadistic passage exercized on the split body, to an Ego/body-ideal. Method: Semi structured interviews with 16 adolescents between 15 and 18 years old allowed us to highlight a lexical field related to the body and the excessiveness in sports;also, the administration of TAT to a bodybuilder (17 years old) for more than 2 years. Results: - Defectiveness in the structuration of the body image; the future bodybuilder will be fixated to the image of the narcissistic misrecognition. - Unsatisfying object relation, implicating incompleteness in the process of subjectivation. - Narcissistic and corporealizedego ideal leading the adolescent to a sadistic pathology directed toward one-s own body as a compensatory defense.

Keywords: Bodybuilding, body image, narcissism, object relation.

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4955 Impact of Hepatitis C Virus Chronic Infection on Quality of Life in Egypt

Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Ghada A. Abdel-Latif, Walaa A. Fouad, Thanaa M. Rabah, Amira Mohsen, Fatma A. Shaaban, Iman I. Salama

Abstract:

The study aimed at determining the impact of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on patients’ Quality of Life (QoL), its relation to geographical characteristics of patients, awareness of the disease, treatment regimen, co-morbid psychiatric or other diseases. 457 patients were randomly selected from ten National Treatment Reference Centers of Ministry of Health hospitals from four community locations representing Egypt. Health related QoL assessment questionnaire with the 36-item Short Form used for assessment of the enrolled patients. The study showed no significant difference between HCV patients in different governorates as regards total QoL. Females, illiterate patients and those had bilharziasis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension or were depressed had significantly the lowest QoL score. HCV patients who knew the danger of the disease had significant lower mean score of physical and mental health components. Optimal care of overall well-being of HCV patients requires adequate knowledge of their neurological and psychological status. It is important to know how to cope with having a family member with hepatitis C and more importantly to know what should you say and what shouldn’t you say as a positive hopeful attitude is essential for combating HCV chronic infection.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus chronic infection, physical health component and mental health component of QoL, total quality of life.

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