A WATERMARKING ALGORITHM BASED ON PERMUTATION AND 2-D BARCODE

This letter presents a method for digital image watermarking for copyright protection. This technique produces a watermarked image that closely retains the quality of the original host image while concurrently surviving various image processing operations such as lowpass/highpass filtering, lossy JPEG compression, and cropping. This image watermarking algorithm takes full advantage of permutation and 2-D barcode (PDF417). The actual watermark embedding in spatial domain is followed using permutated image for improving the resistance to image cropping. Much higher watermark robustness is obtainable via a simple forward error correction technique, which is the main feature of PDF417 codes. Additional features of this technique include the easy determination of the existence of the watermark and that the watermark verification procedure does not need the original host image. The experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness.

Phylogeny,genetics,and the partial life cycle of Oncomegas wageneri in the Gulf of Mexico

Despite the diversity and ecological importance of cestodes,there is a paucity of studies on their life stages(i.e.,complete lists of intermediate,paratenic,and definitive hosts)and genetic variation.For example,in the Gulf of Mexico(GoM)98 species of cestodes have been reported to date;however,data on their intraspecific genetic variation and population genetic studies are lacking.The trypanorhynch cestode,Oncomegas wageneri,is found(among other places)off the American Western Atlantic Coast,including the GoM,and has been reported as an adult from stingrays and from several teleost species in its larval form(as plerocerci).This study represents the first report of 2 previously unregistered definitive hosts for O.wageneri,namely the Atlantic sharpnose shark Rhizoprionodon terraenovae and the southern stingray Hypanus americanus.In this work,partial sequences of the 28S(region D1-D2)ribosomal DNA were analyzed to include O.wageneri within an eutetrarhynchoid phylogenetic framework.All O.wageneri individuals(which included plerocerci and adults)were recovered as monophyletic and Oncomegas celatus was identified as the sister species of O.wageneri.Furthermore,population genetic analyses of O.wageneri from the southern GoM were carried out using DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxi-dase subunit 1(COI)gene,which reflected high genetic variation and a lack of genetic structure among the 9 oceanographic sampling sites.Based on these results,O.wageneri is panmictic in the southern GoM.More extensive sampling along the species entire distribution is necessary to make more accurate inferences of population genetics of O.wageneri.