Query: Digital Image Authentication Model Based on Edge Adaptive Steganography

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A Computational Approach to Edge Detection <=SEP=> This paper describes a computational approach to edge detection. The success of the approach depends on the definition of a comprehensive set of goals for the computation of edge points. These goals must be precise enough to delimit the desired behavior of the detector while making minimal assumptions about the form of the solution. We define detection and localization criteria for a class of edges, and present mathematical forms for these criteria as functionals on the operator impulse response. A third criterion is then added to ensure that the detector has only one response to a single edge. We use the criteria in numerical optimization to derive detectors for several common image features, including step edges. On specializing the analysis to step edges, we find that there is a natural uncertainty principle between detection and localization performance, which are the two main goals. With this principle we derive a single operator shape which is optimal at any scale. The optimal detector has a simple approximate implementation in which edges are marked at maxima in gradient magnitude of a Gaussian-smoothed image. We extend this simple detector using operators of several widths to cope with different signal-to-noise ratios in the image. We present a general method, called feature synthesis, for the fine-to-coarse integration of information from operators at different scales. Finally we show that step edge detector performance improves considerably as the operator point spread function is extended along the edge.

Exploring steganography: Seeing the unseen <=SEP=> Steganography is the art of hiding information in ways that prevent the detection of hidden messages. It includes a vast array of secret communications methods that conceal the message's very existence. These methods include invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement, digital signatures, covert channels, and spread spectrum communications. Steganography and cryptography are cousins in the spycraft family: cryptography scrambles a message so it cannot be understood while steganography hides the message so it cannot be seen. In this article the authors discuss image files and how to hide information in them, and discuss results obtained from evaluating available steganographic software. They argue that steganography by itself does not ensure secrecy, but neither does simple encryption. If these methods are combined, however, stronger encryption methods result. If an encrypted message is intercepted, the interceptor knows the text is an encrypted message. But with steganography, the interceptor may not know that a hidden message even exists. For a brief look at how steganography evolved, there is included a sidebar titled "Steganography: Some History."

Techniques for Data Hiding <=SEP=> by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying in printed form for private use is permitted without payment of royalty provided that (1) each reproduction is done without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on the first page. The title and abstract, but no other portions, of this paper may be copied or distributed royalty free without further permission by computer-based and other information service systems. Permission to republish any other portion of this paper must be obtained from the Editor. Data hiding, a form of steganography, embeds data into digital media for the purpose of identification, annotation, and copyright. Several constraints affect this process: the quantity of data to be hidden, the need for invariance of these data under conditions where a " host " signal is subject to distortions, e.g., lossy compression, and the degree to which the data must be immune to interception, modification, or removal by a third party. We explore both traditional and novel techniques for addressing the data-hiding process and evaluate these techniques in light of three applications: copyright protection, tamper-proofing, and augmentation data embedding. igital representation of media facilitates access and potentially improves the portability, efficiency , and accuracy of the information presented. Undesirable effects of facile data access include an increased opportunity for violation of copyright and tampering with or modification of content. The motivation for this work includes the provision of protection of intellectual property rights, an indication of content manipulation, and a means of annotation. Data hiding represents a class of processes used to embed data, such as copyright information, into various forms of media such as image, audio, or text with a minimum amount of perceivable degradation to the " host " signal; i.e., the embedded data should be invisible and inaudible to a human observer. Note that data hiding, while similar to compression, is distinct from encryption. Its goal is not to restrict or regulate access to the host signal, but rather to ensure that embedded data remain inviolate and recoverable. Two important uses of data hiding in digital media are to provide proof of the copyright, and assurance of content integrity. Therefore, the data should stay hidden in a host signal, even if that signal is subjected to manipulation as degrading as filtering, resampling, cropping, or lossy data compression. Other applications of data hiding, such as the inclusion of augmentation data, need not …

A New Approach to Persian/Arabic Text Steganography <=SEP=> Conveying information secretly and establishing hidden relationship has been of interest since long past. Text documents have been widely used since very long time ago. Therefore, we have witnessed different method of hiding information in texts (text steganography) since past to the present. In this paper we introduce a new approach for steganography in Persian and Arabic texts. Considering the existence of too many points in Persian and Arabic phrases, in this approach, by vertical displacement of the points, we hide information in the texts. This approach can be categorized under feature coding methods. This method can be used for Persian/Arabic watermarking. Our method has been implemented by Java programming language

Applications of data hiding in digital images <=SEP=> 

At the end of the 14C time scale--the Middle to Upper Paleolithic record of western Eurasia. <=SEP=> The dynamics of change underlying the demographic processes that led to the replacement of Neandertals by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) and the emergence of what are recognized as Upper Paleolithic technologies and behavior can only be understood with reference to the underlying chronological framework. This paper examines the European chronometric (mainly radiocarbon-based) record for the period between ca. 40 and 30 ka 14C BP and proposes a relatively rapid transition within some 2,500 years. This can be summarized in the following falsifiable hypotheses: (1) final Middle Paleolithic (FMP) "transitional" industries (Uluzzian, Chatelperronian, leaf-point industries) were made by Neandertals and date predominantly to between ca. 41 and 38 ka 14C BP, but not younger than 35/34 ka 14C BP; (2) initial (IUP) and early (EUP) Upper Paleolithic "transitional" industries (Bachokirian, Bohunician, Protoaurignacian, Kostenki 14) will date to between ca. 39/38 and 35 ka 14C BP and document the appearance of AMH in Europe; (3) the earliest Aurignacian (I) appears throughout Europe quasi simultaneously at ca. 35 ka 14C BP. The earliest appearance of figurative art is documented only for a later phase ca. 33.0/32.5-29.2 ka 14C BP. Taken together, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition appears to be a cumulative process involving the acquisition of different elements of "behavioral modernity" through several "stages of innovation."

Azuma A Survey of Augmented Reality <=SEP=> This paper surveys the field of augmented reality (AR), in which 3D virtual objects are integrated into a 3D real environment in real time. It describes the medical, manufacturing , visualization, path planning, entertainment, and military applications that have been explored. This paper describes the characteristics of augmented reality systems, including a detailed discussion of the tradeoffs between optical and video blending approaches. Registration and sensing errors are two of the biggest problems in building effective augmented reality systems, so this paper summarizes current efforts to overcome these problems. Future directions and areas requiring further research are discussed. This survey provides a starting point for anyone interested in researching or using augmented reality.

The Social Explanatory Styles Questionnaire: Assessing Moderators of Basic Social-Cognitive Phenomena Including Spontaneous Trait Inference, the Fundamental Attribution Error, and Moral Blame <=SEP=> Why is he poor? Why is she failing academically? Why is he so generous? Why is she so conscientious? Answers to such everyday questions--social explanations--have powerful effects on relationships at the interpersonal and societal levels. How do people select an explanation in particular cases? We suggest that, often, explanations are selected based on the individual's pre-existing general theories of social causality. More specifically, we suggest that over time individuals develop general beliefs regarding the causes of social events. We refer to these beliefs as social explanatory styles. Our goal in the present article is to offer and validate a measure of individual differences in social explanatory styles. Accordingly, we offer the Social Explanatory Styles Questionnaire (SESQ), which measures three independent dimensions of social explanatory style: Dispositionism, historicism, and controllability. Studies 1-3 examine basic psychometric properties of the SESQ and provide positive evidence regarding internal consistency, factor structure, and both convergent and divergent validity. Studies 4-6 examine predictive validity for each subscale: Does each explanatory dimension moderate an important phenomenon of social cognition? Results suggest that they do. In Study 4, we show that SESQ dispositionism moderates the tendency to make spontaneous trait inferences. In Study 5, we show that SESQ historicism moderates the tendency to commit the Fundamental Attribution Error. Finally, in Study 6 we show that SESQ controllability predicts polarization of moral blame judgments: Heightened blaming toward controllable stigmas (assimilation), and attenuated blaming toward uncontrollable stigmas (contrast). Decades of research suggest that explanatory style regarding the self is a powerful predictor of self-functioning. We think it is likely that social explanatory styles--perhaps comprising interactive combinations of the basic dimensions tapped by the SESQ--will be similarly potent predictors of social functioning. We hope the SESQ will be a useful tool for exploring that possibility.

SimSensei Demonstration: A Perceptive Virtual Human Interviewer for Healthcare Applications <=SEP=> We present the SimSensei system, a fully automatic virtual agent that conducts interviews to assess indicators of psychological distress. We emphasize on the perception part of the system, a multimodal framework which captures and analyzes user state for both behavioral understanding and interactional purposes.

Speech Synthesis of Code-Mixed Text <=SEP=> Most Text to Speech (TTS) systems today assume that the input text is in a single language and is written in the same language that the text needs to be synthesized in. However, in bilingual and multilingual communities, code mixing or code switching occurs in speech, in which speakers switch between languages in the same utterance. Due to the popularity of social media, we now see code-mixing even in text in these multilingual communities. TTS systems capable of synthesizing such text need to be able to handle text that is written in multiple languages and scripts. Code-mixed text poses many challenges to TTS systems, such as language identification, spelling normalization and pronunciation modeling. In this work, we describe a preliminary framework for synthesizing code-mixed text. We carry out experiments on synthesizing code-mixed Hindi and English text. We find that there is a significant user preference for TTS systems that can correctly identify and pronounce words in different languages.

Transductive Adversarial Networks (TAN) <=SEP=> Transductive Adversarial Networks (TAN) is a novel domain-adaptation machine learning framework that is designed for learning a conditional probability distribution on unlabelled input data in a target domain, while also only having access to: (1) easily obtained labelled data from a related source domain, which may have a different conditional probability distribution than the target domain, and (2) a marginalised prior distribution on the labels for the target domain. TAN leverages a fully adversarial training procedure and a unique generator/encoder architecture which approximates the transductive combination of the available sourceand target-domain data. A benefit of TAN is that it allows the distance between the sourceand target-domain label-vector marginal probability distributions to be greater than 0 (i.e. different tasks across the source and target domains) whereas other domain-adaptation algorithms require this distance to equal 0 (i.e. a single task across the source and target domains). TAN can, however, still handle the latter case and is a more generalised approach to this case. Another benefit of TAN is that due to being a fully adversarial algorithm, it has the potential to accurately approximate highly complex distributions. Theoretical analysis demonstrates the viability of the TAN framework.

A framework for designing cloud forensic-enabled services (CFeS) <=SEP=> Cloud computing is used by consumers to access cloud services. Malicious actors exploit vulnerabilities of cloud services to attack consumers. The link between these two assumptions is the cloud service. Although cloud forensics assists in the direction of investigating and solving cloud-based cyber-crimes, in many cases the design and implementation of cloud services fall back. Software designers and engineers should focus their attention on the design and implementation of cloud services that can be investigated in a forensic sound manner. This paper presents a methodology that aims on assisting designers to design cloud forensic-enabled services. The methodology supports the design of cloud services by implementing a number of steps to make the services cloud forensic enabled. It consists of a set of cloud forensic constraints, a modeling language expressed through a conceptual model and a process based on the concepts identified and presented in the model. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is the correlation of cloud services’ characteristics with the cloud investigation while providing software engineers the ability to design and implement cloud forensic-enabled services via the use of a set of predefined forensic-related tasks.

Implementing a Personal Health Record Cloud Platform Using Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption <=SEP=> Work on designing and implementing a patient-centric, personal health record cloud platform based on open-source Indivo X system. We adopt cipher text-policy attribute-based encryption to provide privacy protection and fine-grained access control.

An ef fi cient and effective convolutional auto-encoder extreme learning machine network for 3 d feature learning <=SEP=> 3D shape features play a crucial role in graphics applications, such as 3D shape matching, recognition, and retrieval. Various 3D shape descriptors have been developed over the last two decades; however, existing descriptors are handcrafted features that are labor-intensively designed and cannot extract discriminative information for a large set of data. In this paper, we propose a rapid 3D feature learning advantages of the convolutional neuron network, auto-encoder, and extreme learning machine (ELM). This method performs better and faster than other methods. In addition, we define a novel architecture based on CAE-ELM. The architecture accepts two types of 3D shape representation, namely, voxel data and signed distance field data (SDF), as inputs to extract the global and local features of 3D shapes. Voxel data describe structural information, whereas SDF data contain details on 3D shapes. Moreover, the proposed CAE-ELM can be used in practical graphics applications, such as 3D shape completion. Experiments show that the features extracted by CAE-ELM are superior to existing hand-crafted features and other deep learning methods or ELM models. Moreover, the classification accuracy of the proposed architecture is superior to that of other methods on ModelNet10 (91.4%) and ModelNet40 (84.35%). The training process also runs faster than existing deep learning methods by approximately two orders of magnitude. & 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking Neural Network Robustness to Common Corruptions and Surface Variations <=SEP=> In this paper we establish rigorous benchmarks for image classifier robustness. Our first benchmark, IMAGENET-C, standardizes and expands the corruption robustness topic, while showing which classifiers are preferable in safety-critical applications. Unlike recent robustness research, this benchmark evaluates performance on commonplace corruptions not worst-case adversarial corruptions. We find that there are negligible changes in relative corruption robustness from AlexNet to ResNet classifiers, and we discover ways to enhance corruption robustness. Then we propose a new dataset called ICONS-50 which opens research on a new kind of robustness, surface variation robustness. With this dataset we evaluate the frailty of classifiers on new styles of known objects and unexpected instances of known classes. We also demonstrate two methods that improve surface variation robustness. Together our benchmarks may aid future work toward networks that learn fundamental class structure and also robustly generalize.

Dual Policy Iteration <=SEP=> A novel class of Approximate Policy Iteration (API) algorithms have recently demonstrated impressive practical performance (e.g., ExIt [1], AlphaGo-Zero [2]). This new family of algorithms maintains, and alternately optimizes, two policies: a fast, reactive policy (e.g., a deep neural network) deployed at test time, and a slow, non-reactive policy (e.g., Tree Search), that can plan multiple steps ahead. The reactive policy is updated under supervision from the non-reactive policy, while the non-reactive policy is improved via guidance from the reactive policy. In this work we study this class of Dual Policy Iteration (DPI) strategy in an alternating optimization framework and provide a convergence analysis that extends existing API theory. We also develop a special instance of this framework which reduces the update of non-reactive policies to model-based optimal control using learned local models, and provides a theoretically sound way of unifying model-free and model-based RL approaches with unknown dynamics. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on various continuous control Markov Decision Processes.

SCPNet: Spatial-Channel Parallelism Network for Joint Holistic and Partial Person Re-Identification <=SEP=> Holistic person re-identification (ReID) has received extensive study in the past few years and achieves impressive progress. However, persons are often occluded by obstacles or other persons in practical scenarios, which makes partial person re-identification non-trivial. In this paper, we propose a spatial-channel parallelism network (SCPNet) in which each channel in the ReID feature pays attention to a given spatial part of the body. The spatial-channel corresponding relationship supervises the network to learn discriminative feature for both holistic and partial person re-identification. The single model trained on four holistic ReID datasets achieves competitive accuracy on these four datasets, as well as outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on two partial ReID datasets without training.

Identifying prosumer's energy sharing behaviours for forming optimal prosumer-communities <=SEP=> Smart Grid (SG) achieves bidirectional energy and information flow between the energy user and the utility grid, allowing energy users not only to consume energy, but also to generate the energy and share with the utility grid or with other energy consumers. This type of energy user who consumes energy and who also can generate the energy is called the “prosumer”. The sustainability of the SG energy sharing process heavily depends on its participating prosumers, making prosumer participation and management schemes crucial within the energy sharing approaches. However in literature, there is very little attention on prosumer management schemes. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, this article introduces a novel concept of participating and managing the prosumers in the SG energy sharing process in the form of autonomous, intelligent goal-oriented virtual communities. Here, the community of prosumers can collectively increase the amount of power to be auctioned or bought offering higher bargaining power, thereby settling for a higher price per kilowatt in long-term. According to the literature, this research is the first of this type introducing a community approach for prosumer management. The initial step to build an effective prosumer-community is the identification of those prosumers who would be suitable to make efficient prosumer communities. This leads the necessity of identifying parameters that influence the energy sharing behaviours of prosumers. The second contribution of this article is that, this comprehensively analyzes the different parameters influencing the prosumer's energy sharing behaviours and thus presents multi-agent architecture for optimal prosumer-community formation.

Adaptive UKF-SLAM based on magnetic gradient inversion method for underwater navigation <=SEP=> Consider the two characteristics: (1) Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is a popular algorithm for autonomous underwater vehicle, but visual SLAM is significantly influenced by weak illumination. (2)Geomagnetism-aided navigation and gravity-aided navigation are equally important methods in the field of vehicle navigation, but both are affected heavily by time-varying noises and terrain fluctuations. However, magnetic gradient vector can avoid the influence of time-varying noises, and is less affected by terrain fluctuations. To this end, we propose an adaptive SLAM-based magnetic gradient aided navigation with the following advantages: (1) Adaptive SLAM is an efficient way to deal with uncertainty of the measurement model. (2) Magnetic gradient inversion equation is a good alternative to be used as measurement equation in visual SLAM-denied environment. Experimental results show that our proposed method is an effective solution, combining magnetic gradient information with SLAM.

Investigating episodes of mobile phone activity as indicators of opportune moments to deliver notifications <=SEP=> We investigate whether opportune moments to deliver notifications surface at the endings of episodes of mobile interaction (making voice calls or receiving SMS) based on the assumption that the endings collocate with naturally occurring breakpoint in the user's primary task. Testing this with a naturalistic experiment we find that interruptions (notifications) are attended to and dealt with significantly more quickly after a user has finished an episode of mobile interaction compared to a random baseline condition, supporting the potential utility of this notification strategy. We also find that the workload and situational appropriateness of the secondary interruption task significantly affect subsequent delay and completion rate of the tasks. In situ self-reports and interviews reveal complexities in the subjective experience of the interruption, which suggest that a more nuanced classification of the particular call or SMS and its relationship to the primary task(s) would be desirable.

Virtual reality and hand tracking system as a medical tool to evaluate patients with parkinson's <=SEP=> In this paper, we take advantage of the free hand interaction technology as a medical tool, either in rehabilitation centers or at home, that allows the evaluation of patients with Parkinson's. We have created a virtual reality scene to engage the patient to feel in an activity that can be found in daily life, and use the Leap Motion controller tracking to evaluate and classify the tremor in the hands. A sample of 33 patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) participated in the study. Three tests were performed per patient, the first two to evaluate the amplitude of the postural tremor in each hand, and the third to measure the time to complete a specific task. Analysis shows that our tool can be used effectively to classify the stage of Parkinson's disease.

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and High School Performance. <=SEP=> BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Little is known of the long-term, including school, outcomes of children diagnosed with Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) (International Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Problems [10th Edition], Australian Modification, P96.1).


METHODS
Linked analysis of health and curriculum-based test data for all children born in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, between 2000 and 2006. Children with NAS (n = 2234) were compared with a control group matched for gestation, socioeconomic status, and gender (n = 4330, control) and with other NSW children (n = 598 265, population) for results on the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy, in grades 3, 5, and 7.


RESULTS
Mean test scores (range 0-1000) for children with NAS were significantly lower in grade 3 (359 vs control: 410 vs population: 421). The deficit was progressive. By grade 7, children with NAS scored lower than other children in grade 5. The risk of not meeting minimum standards was independently associated with NAS (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.2-2.7), indigenous status (aOR, 2.2; 95% CI, 2.2-2.3), male gender (aOR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.3-1.4), and low parental education (aOR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1-1.6), with all Ps < .001.


CONCLUSIONS
A neonatal diagnostic code of NAS is strongly associated with poor and deteriorating school performance. Parental education may decrease the risk of failure. Children with NAS and their families must be identified early and provided with support to minimize the consequences of poor educational outcomes.

Programming challenges of chatbot: Current and future prospective <=SEP=> In the modern Era of technology, Chatbots is the next big thing in the era of conversational services. Chatbots is a virtual person who can effectively talk to any human being using interactive textual skills. Currently, there are many cloud base Chatbots services which are available for the development and improvement of the chatbot sector such as IBM Watson, Microsoft bot, AWS Lambda, Heroku and many others. A virtual person is based on machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) concepts and due to dynamic nature, there is a drawback in the design and development of these chatbots as they have built-in AI, NLP, programming and conversion services. This paper gives an overview of cloud-based chatbots technologies along with programming of chatbots and challenges of programming in current and future Era of chatbot.

Model predictive control for dynamic footstep adjustment using the divergent component of motion <=SEP=> This paper presents an extension of previous model predictive control (MPC) schemes to the stabilization of the time-varying divergent component of motion (DCM). To address the control authority limitations caused by fixed footholds, the step positions and rotations are treated as control inputs, allowing the generation and execution of stable walking motions, both at high speeds and in the face of disturbances. Rotation approximations are handled by applying a mixed-integer program, which, when combined with the use of the time-varying DCM to account for the effects of height changes, improve the versatility of MPC. Simulation results of fast walking and step recovery with the ESCHER humanoid demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.

Vaginal Labiaplasty: Defense of the Simple “Clip and Snip” and a New Classification System <=SEP=> Vaginal labiaplasty has become a more frequently performed procedure as a result of the publicity and education possible with the internet. Some of our patients have suffered in silence for years with large, protruding labia minora and the tissue above the clitoris that is disfiguring and uncomfortable and makes intercourse very difficult and painful. We propose four classes of labia protrusion based on size and location: Class 1 is normal, where the labia majora and minora are about equal. Class 2 is the protrusion of the minora beyond the majora. Class 3 includes a clitoral hood. Class 4 is where the large labia minora extends to the perineum. There are two principal means of reconstructing this area. Simple amputation may be possible for Class 2 and Class 4. Class 2 and Class 3 may be treated with a wedge resection and flap advancement that preserves the delicate free edge of the labia minora (Alter, Ann Plast Surg 40:287, 1988). Class 4 may require a combination of both amputation of the clitoral hood and/or perineal extensions and rotation flap advancement over the labia minora. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Face Recognition: A Hybrid Neural Network Approach <=SEP=> Faces represent complex, multidimensional, meaningful visual stimuli an d developing a computational model for face recognition is difficult [42]. We present a hybrid neural network solution which compares favorably with other methods. The system combines local image sam pling, a self-organizing map neural network, and a convolutional neural network. The self-organizi ng map provides a quantization of the image samples into a topological space where inputs that are n e rby in the original space are also nearby in the output space, thereby providing dimensionality red uction and invariance to minor changes in the image sample, and the convolutional neural network prov ides for partial invariance to translation, rotation, scale, and deformation. The convolutional net work extracts successively larger features in a hierarchical set of layers. We present results using the Karhunen -Loève transform in place of the self-organizing map, and a multi-layer perceptron in place of the con volutional network. The Karhunen-Loève transform performs almost as well (5.3% error versus 3 .8%). The multi-layer perceptron performs very poorly (40% error versus 3.8%). The method is cap able of rapid classification, requires only fast, approximate normalization and preprocessing, and cons istently exhibits better classification performance than the eigenfaces approach [42] on the database consider ed as the number of images per person in the training database is varied from 1 to 5. With 5 imag es per person the proposed method and eigenfaces result in 3.8% and 10.5% error respectively. The recogni zer provides a measure of confidence in its output and classification error approaches zero when rejecting as few as 10% of the examples. We use a database of 400 images of 40 individuals which cont ains quite a high degree of variability in expression, pose, and facial details. We analyze computati onal complexity and discuss how new classes could be added to the trained recognizer.

Prevalence of chronic low back pain: systematic review <=SEP=> OBJECTIVE
To estimate worldwide prevalence of chronic low back pain according to age and sex.


METHODS
We consulted Medline (PubMed), LILACS and EMBASE electronic databases. The search strategy used the following descriptors and combinations: back pain, prevalence, musculoskeletal diseases, chronic musculoskeletal pain, rheumatic, low back pain, musculoskeletal disorders and chronic low back pain. We selected cross-sectional population-based or cohort studies that assessed chronic low back pain as an outcome. We also assessed the quality of the selected studies as well as the chronic low back pain prevalence according to age and sex.


RESULTS
The review included 28 studies. Based on our qualitative evaluation, around one third of the studies had low scores, mainly due to high non-response rates. Chronic low back pain prevalence was 4.2% in individuals aged between 24 and 39 years old and 19.6% in those aged between 20 and 59. Of nine studies with individuals aged 18 and above, six reported chronic low back pain between 3.9% and 10.2% and three, prevalence between 13.1% and 20.3%. In the Brazilian older population, chronic low back pain prevalence was 25.4%.


CONCLUSIONS
Chronic low back pain prevalence increases linearly from the third decade of life on, until the 60 years of age, being more prevalent in women. Methodological approaches aiming to reduce high heterogeneity in case definitions of chronic low back pain are essential to consistency and comparative analysis between studies. A standard chronic low back pain definition should include the precise description of the anatomical area, pain duration and limitation level.

The image of India as a Travel Destination and the attitude of viewers towards Indian TV Dramas <=SEP=> For a few decades now, various television stations in Indonesia have been broadcasting foreign drama series including those from a range of Asian countries, such Korea, India, Turkey, Thailand and the Philippines . This study aims to explore attitude towards Asian drama in those countries and the destination image of the country where the drama emanates from as perceived by the audiences. This study applied a mixed-methodology approach in order to explore particularly attitudes towards foreign television drama productions. There is a paucity of study exploring the attitudes of audiences towards Indian television dramas and a limited study focussing on the image of India as a preferred travel destination. Data was collected using an online instrument and participants were selected as a convenience sample. The attitude towards foreign television dramas was measured using items that were adapted from the qualitative study results, whereas for measuring destination image, an existing scale was employed. This study found that the attitudes of audiences towards Indian drama and their image of India had no dimension (one factor). The study also reported that attitude towards Indian dramas had a significant impact on the image of India as a travel destination and vice-versa. Recommendations for future study and tourism marketing are discussed.

Low Power High-Efficiency Shift Register Using Implicit Pulse-Triggered Flip-Flop in 130 nm CMOS Process for a Cryptographic RFID Tag <=SEP=> The shift register is a type of sequential logic circuit which is mostly used for storing digital data or the transferring of data in the form of binary numbers in radio frequency identification (RFID) applications to improve the security of the system. A power-efficient shift register utilizing a new flip-flop with an implicit pulse-triggered structure is presented in this article. The proposed flip-flop has features of high performance and low power. It is composed of a sampling circuit implemented by five transistors, a C-element for rise and fall paths, and a keeper stage. The speed is enhanced by executing four clocked transistors together with a transition condition technique. The simulation result confirms that the proposed topology consumes the lowest amounts of power of 30.1997 and 22.7071 nW for parallel in –parallel out (PIPO) and serial in –serial out (SISO) shift register respectively covering 22 μm2 chip area. The overall design consist of only 16 transistors and is simulated in 130 nm complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology with a 1.2 V power supply.

Static and dynamic 3D facial expression recognition: A comprehensive survey <=SEP=> a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Facial behaviour analysis Facial expression recognition 3D facial surface 3D facial surface sequences (4D faces) Automatic facial expression recognition constitutes an active research field due to the latest advances in computing technology that make the user's experience a clear priority. The majority of work conducted in this area involves 2D imagery, despite the problems this presents due to inherent pose and illumination variations. In order to deal with these problems, 3D and 4D (dynamic 3D) recordings are increasingly used in expression analysis research. In this paper we survey the recent advances in 3D and 4D facial expression recognition. We discuss developments in 3D facial data acquisition and tracking, and present currently available 3D/4D face databases suitable for 3D/4D facial expressions analysis as well as the existing facial expression recognition systems that exploit either 3D or 4D data in detail. Finally, challenges that have to be addressed if 3D facial expression recognition systems are to become a part of future applications are extensively discussed. Automatic human behaviour understanding has attracted a great deal of interest over the past two decades, mainly because of its many applications spanning various fields such as psychology, computer technology , medicine and security. It can be regarded as the essence of next-generation computing systems as it plays a crucial role in affective computing technologies (i.e. proactive and affective user interfaces), learner-adaptive tutoring systems, patient-profiled personal wellbeing technologies, etc. [1]. Facial expression is the most cogent, naturally preeminent means for humans to communicate emotions, to clarify and give emphasis, to signal comprehension disagreement, to express intentions and, more generally, to regulate interactions with the environment and other people [2]. These facts highlight the importance of automatic facial behaviour analysis, including facial expression of emotion and facial action unit (AU) recognition, and justify the interest this research area has attracted, in the past twenty years [3,4]. Until recently, most of the available data sets of expressive faces were of limited size containing only deliberately posed affective displays, mainly of the prototypical expressions of six basic emotions (i.e. anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise), recorded under highly controlled conditions. Recent efforts focus on the recognition of complex and spontaneous emotional phenomena (e.g. boredom or lack of attention, frustration , stress, etc.) rather than on the recognition of deliberately displayed prototypical expressions of emotions [5,4,6,7]. However, most …