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Pixel-value differencing (PVD) steganography can embed a large quantity of information and effectively resist regular/singular (RS) detection. Recent steganography techniques that are based on PVD have only focused on improving embedding capacity and image quality. In terms of security, PVD steganography has typically only been tested against well-known RS detection analysis or pixel difference histogram attacks. Modified PVD (MPVD) is an improved method that eliminates certain detectable features of PVD, thereby increasing security. State-of-the-art studies in steganalysis have attempted to detect MPVD steganography by using features of the differences between cover images and stego images, and they have generated models to test suspicious images. However, these methods have low accuracy when the embedding capacity is low. In this study, we propose a chi-square goodness-of-fit-based steganalysis technique that can be applied to MPVD steganography. Experimental results demonstrate that the method effectively detects MPVD steganography even when the embedding ratio is low. Furthermore, the accuracy, precision, and implementation of the method are better than those of existing state-of-the-art techniques in detecting data hidden using MPVD steganography. Therefore, the proposed method contributes to the security analysis of PVD-extended steganography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panzhousaurus rotundirostris Jiang, Lin, Rieppel, Motani and Sun, 2019, is restudied on the basis of a second specimen from the Upper Member of the Guanling Formation near Panzhou City, Guizhou Province, China. The second specimen offers hitherto unknown or unconfirmed information regarding the dermal palate, the ventral aspect of the cervical vertebrae, and the hind limbs, thus permitting a refinement of the diagnosis. Newly added or modified diagnostic characters include paired frontals with no posterolateral process, elongated and slender phalanges in the manus and pes, and a phalangeal formula of 3-4-5-4-3 for the manus, and 2-3-4-5-3 for the pes. A new phylogenetic analysis of Eosauropterygia demonstrates that Pachypleurosauridae is the sister taxon of Eusauropterygia, and the monophyly of these groups as traditionally upheld is confirmed. Panzhousaurus is most closely related to Dianopachysaurus and Keichousaurus within Pachypleurosauridae. In this study, the monophyletic Pistosauroidea excludes Corosaurus and Cymatosaurus. The latter two genera are found to form a monophyletic clade that represents the basal-most members of Eusauropterygia, which is in accordance with their stratigraphic distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a sliding mode control using a Gaussian radial basis function neural network speed control design for robust stabilization and disturbance rejection of the synchronous reluctance motor. In the conventional sliding mode control design, it is assumed that the upper boundary of parameter variations and external disturbances is known and the sign function is used. This causes high-frequency chattering and high gain. A new sliding mode controller using a Gaussian radial basis function neural network estimator is proposed for the synchronous reluctance motor. The proposed method utilizes the Lyapunov function candidate to guarantee convergence and to track the speed command of the synchronous reluctance motor asymptotically. The estimator of parameter variations and external disturbances is designed to estimate the lump unknown uncertainty value in real time. Experiments were conducted to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactions of Cd(NO3)2·4H2O with bis(2-pyridyl)formamidine (HDpyF) and bis(6-methyl-2-pyridyl)formamidine (HDMepyF) in CH3OH afforded the dinuclear products, [Cd2(DpyF)3][Cd(NO3)4]0.5 (1), and [Cd2(DMepyF)3](NO3) (2), respectively. Their structures were determined by X-ray crystallography. Complex 1 crystallized in two different space groups with different packing solvents. Both the DpyF− and DMepyF− ligands are coordinated to the Cd atoms in new tetradentate fashions, forming two chelating and four bridging bonding modes. Each cadmium metal center of the cations is tris-chelated and strongly distorted from octahedral coordination due to the small bite of the DpyF− and DMepyF− ligands. The molecules of the cations are chiral due to the ligand constraints. They are the first dicadmium complexes bearing formamidinate ligands with triple helical structures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ABSTRACT—Eosauropterygians rapidly diversified in the Anisian (Middle Triassic), a period by which the invertebrates had already completely recovered from the end-Permian mass extinction. The Pelsonian (Anisian) deposits of the small Panxian and Luoping intraplatform basins in southwestern China alone yielded seven or more eosauropterygian taxa. A new Middle Triassic sauropterygian, Panzhousaurus rotundirostris, gen. et sp. nov., is here described based on an almost complete skeleton from the middle Anisian (Middle Triassic) of Panzhou (Guizhou Province, southwestern China). The upper temporal fenestra smaller than the orbit, the broad and flat parietal table, the cervical ribs with two proximal articular heads, the pachyostotic proximal ends of the dorsal ribs, and the unexpanded sacral ribs indicate that the specimen is a pachypleurosaur-like eosauropterygian. The new species also shows some differences from all other eosauropterygians, such as a rounded and shortened snout, 24 cervical and 20 dorsal vertebrae, a straight ulna with a concave posterior margin, and four distal carpals. Phylogenetic analysis also reveals that Panzhousaurus is an eosauropterygian, closely related to pachypleurosaur-like forms. The discovery of Panzhousaurus enriches our knowledge of the diversity of the Panxian fauna and provides new information to test phylogenetic relationships among known eosauropterygians. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:682A4FDD-C048-469F-867A-9F1D5847BD5A Supplemental Data—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Jiang, D.-Y., W.-B. Lin, O. Rieppel, R. Motani, and Z.-Y. Sun. 2019. A new Anisian (Middle Triassic) eosauropterygian (Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from Panzhou, Guizhou Province, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI:10.1080/02724634.2018.1480113. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new specimen ofLariosaurus xingyiensisis described and provides new information on the dermal palate of the skull and the postcranial skeleton. Based on a comprehensive comparison with the holotype specimen, an amended diagnosis ofL. xingyiensisis given on the basis of the following features: a medium-sized species ofLariosauruswith jugal absent, longitudinal diameter of upper temporal fenestra about 1.7 times longitudinal diameter of orbit, retroarticular process elongate, clavicles without anterolaterally expanded corners, posterior scapular process (blade) slender and elongate, humerus distinctly shorter than femur, and dorsal process of ilium with distinct tubercular ornamentation. Two phylogenetic analyses of Nothosauridae demonstrate thatNothosaurusas previously conceived is not monophyletic whereasLariosaurusis a monophylum. Three species previously referred toNothosaurusare more closely related toLariosaurusand are hereby reassigned toLariosaurus, namely,L. juvenilis, L. youngi, andL. winkelhorsti. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free atwww.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Lin, W.-B., D.-Y. Jiang, O. Rieppel, R. Motani, C. Ji, A. Tintori, Z.-Y. Sun, and M. Zhou. 2017. A new specimen ofLariosaurus xingyiensis(Reptilia, Sauropterygia) from the Ladinian (Middle Triassic) Zhuganpo Member, Falang Formation, Guizhou, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1278703. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exact harmonic metric for a moving Reissner—Nordström black hole with an arbitrarily constant speed is presented. As an application, the post-Newtonian dynamics of a non-relativistic particle in this field is calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winds play a significant role in active galactic nuclei feedback process. Previous simulations studying winds only focus on a small dynamical range. Therefore, it is unknown how far the winds can go and what the properties of the winds will be if they can move to large radii. We perform simulations to study the large-scale dynamics of winds driven by line force. We find that the properties of the winds depend on both black hole mass (M BH) and accretion disc luminosity. When the accretion disc luminosity is 0.6 L edd (L edd being Eddington luminosity), independent of M BH, the winds have kinetic energy flux exceeding |$1{{\ \rm per\ cent}} L_{\rm edd}$| and can escape from the black hole potential. For the case with the accretion disc luminosity equaling 0.3 L edd, the strength of the winds decreases with the decrease of M BH. If M BH decreases from 109 to 106 solar mass (M⊙), the winds kinetic energy flux decreases from ∼0.01 L edd to ∼10−6 L edd. In case of |$M_{\rm BH}\ge 10^7 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$|⁠ , winds can escape from black hole potential. In the case of |$M_{\rm BH}=10^6 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$|⁠ , the winds cannot escape. We find that for the ultra-fast winds observed in hard X-ray bands, the observed dependence of the mass flux and the kinetic energy flux on accretion disc luminosity can be well produced by line force driven winds model. We also find that the properties of the ultra-fast winds observed in soft X-ray bands can be explained by the line force driven winds model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Uric acid is a product of purine metabolism. Recently, uric acid has gained much attraction in cancer. In this study, we aim to investigate the clinicopathological and prognostic significance of serum uric acid concentration in breast cancer patients. Methods A total of 443 female patients with histopathologically diagnosed breast cancer were included. After a mean follow-up time of 56 months, survival was analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method. To further evaluate the prognostic significance of uric acid concentrations, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied. Results Of the clinicopathological parameters, uric acid concentration was associated with age, body mass index, ER status and PR status. Univariate analysis identified that patients with increased uric acid concentration had a significantly inferior overall survival (HR 2.13, 95% CI 1.15–3.94, p = 0.016). In multivariate analysis, we found that high uric acid concentration is an independent prognostic factor predicting death, but insufficient to predict local relapse or distant metastasis. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that high uric acid concentration is related to the poor overall survival ( p = 0.013). Conclusions High uric acid concentration predicts poor survival in patients with breast cancer, and might serve as a potential marker for appropriate management of breast cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthrax is a disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which results in high mortality in animals and humans. Although some of the mechanisms are already known such as asphyxia, extensive knowledge of molecular pathogenesis of this disease is deficient and remains to be further investigated. Lethal toxin (LT) is a major virulence factor of B. anthracis and a specific inhibitor/protease of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases (MAPKKs). Anthrax LT causes lethality and induces certain anthrax-like symptoms, such as anemia and hypoxia, in experimental mice. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are the downstream pathways of MAPKKs, and are important for erythropoiesis. This prompted us to hypothesize that anemia and hypoxia may in part be exacerbated by erythropoietic dysfunction. As revealed by colony-forming cell assays in this study, LT challenges significantly reduced mouse erythroid progenitor cells. In addition, in a proteolytic activity-dependent manner, LT suppressed cell survival and differentiation of cord blood CD34+-derived erythroblasts in vitro. Suppression of cell numbers and the percentage of erythroblasts in the bone marrow were detected in LT-challenged C57BL/6J mice. In contrast, erythropoiesis was provoked through treatments of erythropoietin, significantly ameliorating the anemia and reducing the mortality of LT-treated mice. These data suggested that suppressed erythropoiesis is part of the pathophysiology of LT-mediated intoxication. Because specific treatments to overcome LT-mediated pathogenesis are still lacking, these efforts may help the development of effective treatments against anthrax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel compact ultrawideband planar antenna fed by a microstrip line is proposed. The proposed antenna consists of a rectangular patch and a defected ground plane with a semicircular notch and two stubs. The modified ground plane is used to achieve the wide impedance bandwidth. The measured results show that the antenna has a bandwidth 2.1-2.6 GHz and 3.3-20 GHz for S11 < −10 dB. The proposed antenna exhibits the omnidirectional radiation patterns and appreciable gain across the operating band. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:86-89, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27263 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]