Abstract This paper presents a new method of data hiding using Catalan numbers and Dyck words. The proposed steganographic solution belongs to the category of techniques based on the key generating process, rather than steganographic techniques such as injecting or substituting bits. The complex stego key consists of three sets of values that provide the technique of a hidden message generation completely. Hidden message is generated based on the data carrier and an adequate complex stego key. An important characteristic of the proposed method is that the data carrier retains its original shape, without supplements or modifications. Proposed method is explained in detail through the general scenario and through concrete examples. State of the art steganographic analysis of the proposed solution is presented in this paper, as well as possible suggestions for application in business information systems, authentication and distribution of secret cryptographic keys.

Com melhores condições de vida e os avanços na medicina, a expectativa de vida do brasileiro está cada vez maior. A fim de promover melhorias de vida para uma parcela da população que está aumentando, o presente projeto buscou desenvolver um produto de moda que atenda às necessidades do público idoso, particularmente dos que apresentam limitações nos membros superiores. Em visitas feitas à abrigos de idosos, foram realizadas entrevistas, obtendo informações mais precisas para nortear a pesquisa de maneira eficiente, e assim contribuir para o desenvolvimento de um produto que facilita o ato de vestir, ergonômico, e com maiores chances de sucesso no mercado. A pesquisa é de natureza aplicada, de caráter exploratório e utiliza uma abordagem qualitativa. Além disso, os procedimentos técnicos utilizados foram bibliográficos e de pesquisa-ação, o que possibilitou uma investigação mais profunda e subjetiva do público-alvo, permitindo a compreensão de seus comportamentos e experiências individuais, culminando em um maior conhecimento sobre o grupo analisado. Ao final do projeto, foi criada uma peça eficiente destinada aos idosos, proporcionando conforto e facilidade de uso, facilitando seu dia-a-dia.

Manual surveillance of inaccessible areas covered in trees and foliage is a difficult, labor-expensive and challenging task. On the other hand, early discovery of forest fires signs is essential in the preservation of the environment, therefore, the need for fast and efficient methods is very important. The characteristic color of the forest fire can be classified with the specific image processing techniques, especially during the late spring and summer when the color of the fire is easily distinguished from the color of trees and foliage, or generally flora. In this paper, a new method for the detection of forest fires is proposed. The method combines several predetermined and fuzzy criteria for image segmentation. A hybrid technique consists of a combination of different components of different color spaces.

Amila Akagic, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Motoki Amagasaki, Kumamoto University, Japan Muhammad Alfian Amrizal, Tohoku University, Japan Hiroaki Anada, University of Nagasaki, Japan Ritu Arora, University of Texas at Austin, U.S. Thomas Austin, San Jose State University, U.S. Akram Ben Ahmed, Keio University, Japan Antoine Bossard, Kanagawa University, Japan Chen-Mou Cheng, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Franco Chiaraluce, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy Stéphane Devismes, VERIMAG UMR 5104, France Nguyen Anh Vu Doan, Technical University of Munich, Germany Ryusuke Egawa, Tohoku University, Japan Toshio Endo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Martti Forsell, VTT, Finland Naoki Fujieda, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan Noriyuki Fujimoto, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan Hiroshi Fujiwara, Shinshu University, Japan Ken-Ichi Fukui, Osaka University, Japan Masayuki Fukumitsu, Hokkaido Information University, Japan Masaru Fukushi, Yamaguchi University, Japan Junichi Funasaka, Hiroshima City University, Japan Takayasu Fushimi, University of Tsukuba, Japan Jing Gong, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Takaaki Goto, Toyo University, Japan Andreas Grapentin, Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany Yan Gu, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S. Masafumi Hashimoto, Osaka University, Japan Kohei Hatano, Kyushu University, Japan Akihiro Hayashi, Rice University, U.S. Ramon Hermoso, University of Zaragoza, Spain Shoichi Hirose, University of Fukui, Japan Michihiro Horie, IBM, Japan Naoto Hoshikawa, National Institute of Technology, Oyama College, Japan Shuichi Ichikawa, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan Tsutomu Inamoto, Ehime University, Japan Masaki Inamura, Tokyo Denki University, Japan Fumihiko Ino, Osaka University, Japan Takashi Ishida, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

The study investigated in vitro the effect of Porphyromonas gingivalis and its cysteine proteases (gingipains) on epithelial cell adhesion to titanium-zirconium alloy surfaces. Titanium-zirconium discs with a standard machined (M) or chemically modified hydrophilic surface (modM) were coated with lamin-5 and incubated with telomerase-inactivated gingival keratinocytes (TIGK). Three P. gingivalis strains or gingipains were either added simultaneously with TIGK or after TIGK cells were already attached to the disks. Adhered TIGK cells were counted at 24 h. All P. gingivalis strains clearly inhibited adhesion of TIGK cells to M and modM surfaces. Compared with bacteria/gingipain-free TIGK cell cultures, the number of attached TIGK cells was reduced by about 80% and 60% when P. gingivalis was added simultaneously or after TIGK cells were already attached to the disks (each p < 0.01), respectively. Counts of attached cells were similarly reduced when only gingipains were used. Adhesion molecules of TIGK cells, in particular E-cadherin, were cleaved by P. gingivalis. In conclusion, P. gingivalis and gingipains interfere with the adhesion of epithelial cells to titanium-zirconium alloy surfaces by cleaving adhesion molecules, while a chemically modified hydrophilic titanium-zirconium alloy surface did not yield any protection. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res B Part B, 2019.

BACKGROUND Morbidity and mortality attributed to prescription opioids are a crisis in the US and spreading globally. Sex differences related to these conditions have not been adequately assessed. METHODS Through our community engagement program, data on demographics, health status, and substance use, including prescription opioids (e.g., Vicodin®, Oxycodone), were collected from community members in Florida (primarily North Central Florida) during a health needs assessment. Participants over 18 years of age were classified by opioid use: past 30-day, lifetime but not past 30-day, or no lifetime prescription opioid use. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were calculated, and multinomial logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aOR; CI). Analyses were conducted for men and women separately to examine sex specific effects. RESULTS Among 9221 community members assessed, the mean age was 45 years, 60% were female, and 58% were black. Respondents who endorsed past 30-day use and lifetime use were more likely to be female. Prescription sedative use was the strongest risk factor for past 30-day (aOR = 3.96; 95% CI, 3.35-4.68) and lifetime (aOR = 2.67; 95% CI, 2.34-3.04) prescription opioid use, regardless of sex. Other factors including marijuana use and history of cancer were significantly associated with prescription opioid use; they varied by sex. CONCLUSIONS The risk factors identified in this community sample provide additional information not accounted for by national studies. Future examinations of the consequences of concomitant opioid and sedative use, especially among women, are needed.

Recent development in wireless technology enabling communication between vehicles led to introduction of the concept of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC), which uses wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication and aims at string stable behavior in a platoon of vehicles. Degradation cascades have been proposed as a way to maintain a certain level of the system functionality in presence of failures. Such degradation behaviour is usually controlled by a runtime/state manager that performs fault detection and transitions the system into states where it will remain acceptably safe. In this paper, we propose a dynamic controller manager that focuses on both safety and performance of the system. In particular, it monitors the channel quality within the platoon and reacts by degrading platoon performance in presence of communication failures, or upgrading the performance when the communication quality is high enough. The reaction can include, e.g., adjusting the inter-vehicle distance or switching to another suitable platoon controller to prevent collisions. We focus on the functional and operational safety and evaluate the performance of the dynamic controller manager under different scenarios and settings in simulation experiments to demonstrate that it can avoid rear-end collisions in a platoon, continue platooning operation even in dense traffic scenarios where the state-of-the-art controllers fail to do so.

Introduction/Background Aberrant Hedgehog (Hh) pathway signaling has been implicated in pathogenesis of several human cancers. Recent studies have indicated its active role in serous ovarian carcinomas. Smoothened protein (SMO), a transmembrane co-receptor in Hh pathway signal transduction, is inhibited in non-dividing cells, thus its disinhibition might be a trigger for uncontrolled cell proliferation and growth. Very few studies have explored the role of SMO in serous ovarian cancers. The aim of the study was to assess the expression of SMO protein and to explore the Smoothened gene promoter methylation in a cohort of serous ovarian carcinomas. Methodology SMO protein expression was immunohistochemically quantified in 40 high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC), 12 low-grade serous carcinomas (LGSC), 20 normal ovarian and 9 normal fallopian tube samples (controls). SMO gene promoter methylation status was analyzed using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) in randomly selected HGSCs (n=10), LGSCs (n=10), and normal fallopian tube (n=9) samples. Kaplan-Meier survival plots were used to estimate the impact of SMO expression on patients‘ overall survival (OS). Results SMO nuclear expression was significantly higher in HGSCs and LGSCs compared with the fallopian tube samples (p=0.010 and p=0.003, respectively). LGSCs, compared with normal ovarian tissue, exhibited higher total, cytoplasmic/membrane and nuclear expression (p=0.000, p=0.001 and p=0.000, respectively). Comparing HGSCs and LGSCs, significantly higher total and cytoplasmic/membrane expression was found in HGSC (p=0.026 and p=0.030, respectively). SMO gene promoter was unmethylated in both LGSCs and HGSCs as well as in fallopian tube. In addition, the SMO protein expression had no significant impact on patients‘ OS (p=0.07). Conclusion Our data indicate the lack of SMO gene promoter methylation while a significant overexpression (particularly nuclear) of SMO protein characterized a substantial proportion of serous ovarian carcinomas. Further functional studies should elucidate the clinical relevance of these findings. Disclosure Nothing to disclose.

As the majority of cancers and gestational diseases are prognostically stage- and grade-dependent, the ultimate goal of ongoing studies in precision medicine is to provide early and timely diagnosis of such disorders. These studies have enabled the development of various new diagnostic biomarkers, such as free circulating nucleic acids, and detection of their epigenetic changes. Recently, extracellular vesicles including exosomes, microvesicles, oncosomes, and apoptotic bodies have been recognized as powerful diagnostic tools. Extracellular vesicles carry specific proteins, lipids, DNAs, mRNAs, and miRNAs of the cells that produced them, thus reflecting the function of these cells. It is believed that exosomes, in particular, may be the optimal biomarkers of pathological pregnancies and cancers, especially those that are frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage, such as ovarian cancer. In the present review, we survey and critically appraise novel epigenetic biomarkers related to free circulating nucleic acids and extracellular vesicles, focusing especially on their status in trophoblasts (pregnancy) and neoplastic cells (cancers).