Wireless sensor networks have emerged as the major criteria that enable the next scientific, technological, engineering, and economic revolution. Since digital rights management is of the crucial importance for sensor networks, there is an urgent need for development of intellectual property protection (IPP) techniques. We have developed the first system of watermarking techniques to embed cryptologically encoded authorship signatures into data and information acquired by wireless embedded sensor networks. The key idea is to impose additional constraints during the data acquisition or sensor data processing. Constraints correspond to the encrypted signature and are selected in such a way that they provide favorable tradeoffs between the accuracy and the strength of proof of the authorship.The techniques for watermarking raw sensor data include one that modifies the location and orientation of a sensor, time management discipline (e.g. frequency and phase of intervals between consecutive data capturing), and its resolution. The second set of techniques embeds signature during data processing. There are at least three degrees of freedom that can be exploited: error minimization procedures, physical world model building, and solving of computationally intractable problems. We have developed several watermarking techniques that leverage on the error minimization degree of freedom and have demonstrated their effectiveness for watermarking location discovery information.

Background: Pregnancy and childbirth are frequently associated with overactive bladder syndrome (OAB). However, the role of parous effects in OAB among nulliparous (NP) women remains controversial. Methods: This study investigated abnormal voiding patterns and detrusor overactivity (DO) among NP women with OAB in comparison with parous women. From August 2011 to December 2018, 906 patients met the inclusion criteria for participation and were divided into three groups: 221 patients in the NP group, 571 patients in the normal spontaneous delivery (NSD) group, and 114 patients in the cesarean section (CS) group. Urodynamic study examinations were performed, and the presence of DO, abnormal voiding patterns, and maximum urethral closure pressure (MUCP) was recorded. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance, χ2 tests, and independent t tests. Results: Compared with parous women in the NSD and CS groups, patients in the NP group had a significantly higher prevalence of abnormal voiding patterns, DO, and MUCP. Furthermore, abnormal voiding patterns were significantly associated with DO and MUCP, respectively, especially in the NP group. Conclusion: We hypothesized that hypertonicity or poor relaxation of the pelvic muscle in NP women may cause functional BOO, which is related to their OAB.

West Nile virus (WNV) is the most widely distributed arbovirus in the world and the spread is influenced by complex factors including weather conditions and urban environmental settings like storm water management ponds (SWMP). The purpose of this work was to develop an ordinary differential equation model to explore the impacts of SWMP, temperature and precipitation on WNV vector abundance and the transmission of WNV between mosquito and bird populations. The model was used to analyse how weather conditions and SWMP can influence the basic reproduction number. The results found that an excess of precipitation and fiercer intraspecific competition will reduce vector population and the peak value of infectious vectors and birds. This information can be used to identify measures that would be useful to control larval abundance in SWMP and the transmission of WNV.

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Pregnancy and childbirth are frequently associated with overactive bladder syndrome (OAB). However, the role of parous effects in OAB among nulliparous (NP) women remains controversial. This study investigated abnormal voiding patterns and DO among NP woman with OAB in comparison with parous women. From August 2011 to December 2018, 906 patients met the inclusion criteria for participation and were divided into three groups: 221 patients in the NP group, 571 patients in the normal spontaneous delivery (NSD) group, and 114 patients in the cesarean section (CS) group. Urodynamic study (UDS) examinations were performed, and the presence of DO, abnormal voiding patterns, and maximum urethral closure pressure (MUCP) were recorded. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance, χ2 tests, and independent t tests. Compared with parous women in the NSD and CS groups, patients in the NP group had a significantly higher prevalence of abnormal voiding patterns, DO and MUCP. Furthermore, abnormal voiding patterns were significantly associated with DO and MUCP respectively, especially in the NP group. We hypothesized that hypertonicity or poor relaxation of the pelvic muscle in NP women may cause functional BOO, which is related to their OAB.