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In this article, coherent manipulation of conductivity-dependent sensitivity of the surface plasmon polariton waves(SPPs) is theoretically investigated at the interface of silver metal and conductive atomic medium based on grating geometry using wavelength interrogation. It is reported that the sensitivity of SPPs depends on the phase and amplitude of the complex conductivity of the conductive atomic medium as well as the parameters of driving fields. The conductivity-dependent wavelength interrogation of sensitivity with respect to the refractive index is written as d λ / d n d (σ) and is a function of complex conductivity. A useful control in sensitivity is investigated with variation of phase and amplitude of complex conductivity as well as probe and control field detunings and Rabi frequency as well as decay rates. The order of diffraction and grating period play an important role in the manipulation of the sensitivity. The sensitivity increases with increasing grating period and decreases with increasing order of diffraction. A maximum value of sensitivity is reported to 600 nm/RIU with amplitude and phase of complex conductivity. The reported results have benefits in sensor devices and plasmonster technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collective light-matter interaction of chiral supramolecular aggregates or molecular ensembles with confined light fields remains a mystery beyond the current theoretical description. Here, we programmably and accurately build models of chiral plasmonic complexes, aiming to uncover the entangled effects of excitonic correlations, intra- and intermolecular charge transfer, and localized surface plasmon resonances. The intricate interplay of multiple chirality origins has proven to be strongly dependent on the site-specificity of chiral molecules on plasmonic nanoparticle surfaces spanning the nanometer to sub-nanometer scale. This dependence is manifested as a distinct circular dichroism response that varies in spectral asymmetry/splitting, signal intensity, and internal ratio of intensity. The inhomogeneity of the surface-localized plasmonic field is revealed to affect excitonic and charge-transfer mixed intermolecular couplings, which are inherent to chirality generation and amplification. Our findings contribute to the development of hybrid classical-quantum theoretical frameworks and the harnessing of spin-charge transport for emergent applications. Chiral interaction of molecular ensembles with confined light fields is elusive. Here, the authors report collective chiroptical effects through coupling of exciton and charge-transfer mixed molecular assemblies with plasmonic nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pursuit of new materials with tailored properties is essential for advancing technology. This research focuses on GaXF3 (X = Se, Si) fluoroperovskites, utilizing the density functional theory approach. The study begins by assessing structural properties, revealing stable configurations for both compounds. The results from phonon calculations confirm the thermodynamic stability of the compounds. The relationship between elastic constants, confirms their mechanical stability. Elasticity analysis using the IRelast package indicates their resilience, anisotropic characteristics, and mechanical stability. Electronic properties, including band structure, density of states, and electronic band gaps, show that both materials have a metallic nature. Additionally, optical properties, such as dielectric constants, absorption coefficients, and refractive indices, are explored, providing insights into their interactions with light for optoelectronic applications. Optical property calculations for both GaSeF3 and GaSiF3, indicate their potential suitability for use in optoelectronic devices, particularly LEDs, due to their absorption within the UV–Vis range. These results encompass properties such as reflectivity, refractive index, and absorption coefficients, indicating their relevance to potential applications in optoelectronic devices. These findings enhance our understanding of these materials and lay the groundwork for future advancements in advanced materials science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically investigates the linkage between boardroom independence and the financial performance of non-financial firms in an emerging market featured by family-controlled businesses and concentrated ownership. The relationship is tested in a sample of 152 non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange over a period from 2003 to 2018. Firms' financial performance is measured through return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), market-to-book ratio (MBR), and Tobin's Q (TQ), while boardroom independence is measured through the proportion of non-executive directors on the corporate board. Using the dynamic GMM approach to address the possibility of endogeneity, it was found that boardroom independence is significantly negatively related to the financial performance of the sample firms. This negative impact is due to the reason of close ties of outside independent directors (non-executive directors) with dominant shareholders and management in personal, financial, and social terms. A significant negative influence of the board size and CEO duality on firms' financial performance was also observed. The present study will add to the existing literature on corporate governance and firm financial performance using firm-level manually collected data. Further, our findings will also help the policymakers by providing empirical insights for strengthening corporate governance mechanisms in emerging market economies, specifically in the context of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural instability in underground engineering, especially in coal–rock structures, poses significant safety risks. Thus, the development of an accurate monitoring method for the health of coal–rock bodies is crucial. The focus of this work is on understanding energy evolution patterns in coal–rock bodies under complex conditions by using shear, splitting, and uniaxial compression tests. We examine the changes in energy parameters during various loading stages and the effects of various failure modes, resulting in an innovative energy dissipation-based health evaluation technique for coal. Key results show that coal bodies go through transitions between strain hardening and softening mechanisms during loading, indicated by fluctuations in elastic energy and dissipation energy density. For tensile failure, the energy profile of coal shows a pattern of "high dissipation and low accumulation" before peak stress. On the other hand, shear failure is described by "high accumulation and low dissipation" in energy trends. Different failure modes correlate with an accelerated increase in the dissipation energy before destabilization, and a significant positive correlation is present between the energy dissipation rate and the stress state of the coal samples. A novel mathematical and statistical approach is developed, establishing a dissipation energy anomaly index, W, which categorizes the structural health of coal into different danger levels. This method provides a quantitative standard for early warning systems and is adaptable for monitoring structural health in complex underground engineering environments, contributing to the development of structural health monitoring technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confusion component is an integral part of any modern information confidentiality technique. The selection of nonlinear confusion component requires an intelligent mechanism. In this article, we used an intelligent multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) mechanism for the selection of an optimum nonlinear confusion component namely substitution box (S-box) using combined compromise solution (CoCoSo) technique. We have thoroughly investigated substitution permutation network (SP-network) based lightweight S-boxes against standard benchmarks cryptographic properties. The fundamental cryptographic aspects includes nonlinearity, strict avalanche criterion (SAC), bit independent criterion (BIC), linear approximation probability (LAP) and differential approximation probability (DAP) for SP-network based 4-bit S-boxes. With this intelligent MCDM based mechanism, we have suggested an efficient mechanism for best nonlinear confusion component for SP-network based S-box. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urease catalyses the hydrolysis of urea to ammonia and carbon dioxide. This enzyme is important in the virulence of several human pathogens and urease activity in soil can cleave urea fertilisers prematurely, leading to waste of agricultural nitrogen. A series of arylsulfonylurea-glucosamine hybrid compounds were synthesised. Reaction of arylsulfonamides with phenyl chloroformate and 4-dimethylaminopyridine gave either phenyl N-(2,4-arylsulfonyl)carbamate 4-dimethylaminopyridinium salts or N-(4-arylsulfonyl)-4-dimethylaminopyridinium-1-carboxamide inner salts, depending on the substitution on the arylsulfonamide. Both types of intermediates, gave ester-protected arylsulfonylurea-glucosamines, when treated with 1,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetylglucosamine. Simple methanolysis gave the arylsulfonylurea-glucosamine hybrids as interconverting mixtures of anomers. Both the O-acetyl intermediates and the target arylsulfonylurea-glucosamines inhibited jack-bean urease with IC50 10–36 μM. This narrow range of values precluded the determination of structure-activity relationships and docking studies suggested several different optimum docking poses for the various analogues. No analogues showed radical-scavenging activity. Several compounds showed modest cytotoxic activity against renal carcinoma cells in the NCI 60-cell-line screen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern block ciphers, the role of the substitution boxes is to generate ciphertext from the plaintext with high confusion. The immunity to various cryptographic attacks heavily depends on the strength of the S-box. In this article, a new method of obtaining highly nonlinear substitution boxes (S-boxes) is proposed. The subject method utilizes the artificial bee colony optimization technique. To check the immunity of the proposed S-boxes, the analysis of the proposed S-boxes is checked against the key performance indicators (KPIs) for S-boxes. The results obtained from KPIs are highly encouraging and the proposed S-boxes meet all the criteria needed for secure communication and storage of digital content. To rank the proposed S-box and the recently published S-boxes, the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution is discussed for the first time for the S-boxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substitution box (S-box) is the core component of any block cipher that creates confusion in the ciphertext. This research contributes to creating a substitution box based on bent Boolean functions. Bent Boolean functions are constructed using the Maiorana–McFarland method and used as the coordinate functions of the substitution box. They are maximal nonlinear and inherently imbalanced, making them unsuitable for direct use in constructing a confusion component. The imbalance nature of the coordinate Boolean function directly impacts the bijective property of the nonlinear component. To create a bijective confusion component, we focus on mitigating the imbalance of each coordinate Boolean function. The methodology adopted is simple and efficient as compared to other heuristic techniques. By defining an empty matrix and putting bent Boolean functions side by side as matrix elements, we shape the initial 2 n × k sized substitution box, k ∈ (2 ,... , n) . We limit the number of occurrences of each possible outcome of initial 2 n × k substitution box to make a bijective n × n S-box. These small initial S-boxes lay a good foundation for constructing strong subsequent S-boxes. Experimental results based on the generation of 8 × 8 substitution box indicate that the suggested algorithm outperforms other competing heuristic approaches in nonlinearity, while maintaining sufficient performance in the strict avalanche criterion, bit-independence, linear and differential probability properties. The suggested nonlinear component is tested using well-known images from the literature, and the histogram analysis of the confused images demonstrates a high degree of randomness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The angular interrogation of sensitivity of the surface plasmon polariton waves (SPPs) is investigated at the interface under the effect of Doppler broadening dielectric medium and silver metal using prism geometry. A useful manipulation over the sensitivity of SPPs is obtained with Doppler broadening effect and parameters of the probe and control fields. The maximum sensitivity is investigated to 3000 deg/RIU with control field detuning, while the manimum sensitivity is reported to 300 deg/RIU with doppler width. The modified result of sensitivity of this manuscript shows potential applications in radiations guiding, photovoltaic devices, and solar cells devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robustness of modern information confidentiality algorithm depends on its individual components. Modern block ciphers highly depend on two components namely confusion and diffusion. These two main characteristics in any modern cipher are achieved by substitution and permutation boxes. In this article, a decision-making algorithm is utilized for the selection of optimum substitution box (S-box), which plays a significant role in the field of information confidentiality. For this purpose, an interval-based Pythagorean fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution (IVPF–TOPSIS) method is introduced to get the desired nonlinear confusion component of block cipher namely S-box. In this manner, we performed cryptographic analyses of standard S-boxes namely nonlinearity (NL), strict avalanche criterion (SAC), bit-independent criterion (BIC), absolute indicator (ABI), the sum of square and absolute indicator (SSAI), algebraic degree (AD), algebraic immunity (AI), transparency order (TO), composite algebraic immunity (CAI), robustness (RB), signal to noise ratio (SNR), confusion coefficient of variance (CCV). With these cryptographic characteristics, we have used interval-valued based Pythagorean fuzzy TOPSIS multi-criteria decision-making technique to classify standard S-boxes suitable for construction of modern block ciphers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new compound, commikuanoid D, was isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction of Commiphora kua resin. The structure was unambiguously elucidated on the basis of complete spectroscopic analysis. Furthermore, the compound displayed potent carbonic anhydrase II inhibition with IC50 of 17.4 ± 0.32 μM. On the other hand, the molecular docking reflected that the acetyl group of the molecule specifically binds with the Zn ion at the active site of CA-II, and the OH group of the compound mediated hydrogen bonding with Gln92, thus blocking the enzyme activity with a good binding score (≥ 7 kcal/mol). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this study we gathered and analyzed the available evidence regarding 17 different imaging modalities and performed network meta-analysis to find the most effective modality for the differentiation between brain tumor recurrence and post-treatment radiation effects. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive systematic search on PubMed and Embase. The quality of eligible studies was assessed using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2) instrument. For each meta-analysis, we recalculated the effect size, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and diagnostic odds ratio from the individual study data provided in the original meta-analysis using a random-effects model. Imaging technique comparisons were then assessed using NMA. Ranking was assessed using the multidimensional scaling approach and by visually assessing surface under the cumulative ranking curves. Results: We identified 32 eligible studies. High confidence in the results was found in only one of them, with a substantial heterogeneity and small study effect in 21% and 9% of included meta-analysis respectively. Comparisons between MRS Cho/NAA, Cho/Cr, DWI, and DSC were most studied. Our analysis showed MRS (Cho/NAA) and 18F-DOPA PET displayed the highest sensitivity and negative likelihood ratios. 18-FET PET was ranked highest among the 17 studied techniques with statistical significance. APT MRI was the only non-nuclear imaging modality to rank higher than DSC, with statistical insignificance, however. Conclusion: The evidence regarding which imaging modality is best for the differentiation between radiation necrosis and post-treatment radiation effects is still inconclusive. Using NMA, our analysis ranked FET PET to be the best for such a task based on the available evidence. APT MRI showed promising results as a non-nuclear alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise position measurement of atoms using reflection and transmission beams of light is studied in this manuscript. It is reported that the transmission and reflection of probe light can be used to detect the localized position of atoms in one dimension which exhibit high resolution and varying number of peaks. Notably, sharp peaks of localization are reported in the transmission and reflection spectra, within the half-wavelength domain. Remarkably, the localized peaks undergo a shift from one half-wavelength domain to another when the sign of the phase in the standing wave field is altered. The theoretical results obtained for atom microscopy in the reflection and transmission spectra hold promising applications in advanced laser cooling technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution is a global concern that has economic and health implications. Therefore, proper estimation using precise modeling can help in decision-making to address this externality. In science and engineering, there are a lot of different theories to help deal with the complex frame of the environment. The prime objective of these theories is to impart a plan of action to handle fuzzy data more precisely. Furthermore, humans need a platform that can correctly assign a value to optimize credence in a belief system. The indeterminacy is further classified into contradiction, ignorance, and unknown by a pentapartitioned neutrosophic set. On the other hand, a cubic set characterizes both the combined and the crisp value. The study introduces pentapartitioned neutrosophic cubic set, as it illustrates all of these attributes, allowing credence to be appropriately handled. The study also explained its operational laws and aggregation operators. Finally, this technique is used to develop and evaluate the air pollution models in major Pakistani cities like Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar. It will help the legislators to reevaluate current policies to mitigate this externality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of encryption is as old as the reality that confidential information has been interchanging among people. The art of transferring secret information between two parties or groups is known as cryptography. It contains the algorithms, key exchange protocols, and approaches to consistently and securely avoid unauthorized access to confidential information. Nowadays information is in digital form, therefore this factor necessitates some cryptographic algorithms for secure data transmission. In this work, we have designed a new approach for audio encryption to securely store and transfer audio signals. The suggested encryption algorithm is primarily based on Gensio-Tesi chaotic map. Substitution and permutation networks are engendered by the Gensio-Tesi chaotic system for the encryption of signals. The other important feature discussed here is the performance of offered algorithm which is ascertained by some extensive audio analysis. Experimental results reveal that the designed scheme has an essential level of security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction and development of new techniques for a nonlinear multivalued Boolean function is one of the important aspects of modern ciphers. These multivalued Boolean functions need to be defined over various algebraic structures which map multiple inputs on multiple outputs. Modern block ciphers are a combination of linear and nonlinear functions which adds diffusion and confusion capabilities. We have offered an innovative system for the construction of the confusion component of block cipher by using recurrent neural networks. Since the confusion component is a multivalued Boolean function, therefore, we need many to many types of recurrent networks with an equal number of inputs and outputs. With this scheme, we have achieved a standard benchmark nonlinear of 112 with balancednesss having low linear and differential probabilities. We evaluated some common and advanced measures for the eminence of randomness and cryptanalytics to observe the efficiency of the proposed methodology. These outcomes validated the generated nonlinear confusion components are effective for block ciphers and have better cryptographic strength in image encryption with a high signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to state-of-the-art techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thorough excavation of the deep ultra-thick mines is highly challenging in rock engineering, which mainly depends on the rheological properties of coal-rock mass, high-stress concentrations, and complex geological conditions. Under heterogeneous settings, a detailed understanding of microseismic (MS) spatio-temporal response to rock mechanical behavior is essential for the efficient and safe-yield of deep ultra-thick mines. This paper utilizes real-time passive seismological data of 36 months in an ultra-thick coal mine through LLTCC mining to quantify the coal-rock mass mechanical behavior. In the post-processing of geophysical data, Power Spectral Density (PSD) was performed and the MS source parameters were computed containing over 18,000 events. The events were classified into different energy-levels to evaluate the increased-pressure rock mass. The Gaussian results reveal that the distribution of MS events coincides with the increased rock pressure. The high energy events (≥ 50,000 J) accounted for 57.93% of the microseismic-induced earthquakes. Moreover, the cloud energy density maps were obtained to identify the zones of high-stress concentration and enhanced seismicity. It is inferred that the overburden pressure and intense fracturing developed the high-stress concentration zones during excavation. Furthermore, the temporal parameters computed from MS data show that sharp-rise and sharp-drop variation can be regarded as early warning indicators for increased rock pressure. High deviation in energy and frequency also evidenced the increased rock pressure and micro-fractures to macro-fracture development. Based on these precursory parameters, a comprehensive early warning method was proposed. Besides, 3D visualization of the fracturing process and identification of new faults assisted in the accurate evaluation of the ultra-thick mine. Several risk zones were identified based on the seismic energy and fractures correlation. Finally, with the help of a deep learning LSTM approach, a prominent peak in time-series data is predicted that defines the increased rock pressure and further characterizes the coal-rock mechanical response. Compared with the existing studies, our integrated geophysical and mine engineering workflow can provide accurate insights to depict the rock mass mechanical behavior of the deep mines as an aid for disaster prediction and early warning. Highlights: A detailed understanding of microseismic Spatio-temporal response to rock mechanical behavior is presented. Field recorded microseismicity is quantitatively correlated with regions of increased-rock pressure and stress concentration. Temporal trends in the microseismic source parameters evidenced increased-rock pressure and a comprehensive early warning model is proposed. A novel microseismological approach is presented to model the mining-induced fracturing process and correlated with seismic energy to identify risk zones. Machine learning based LSTM approach pioneered and resulted in the prediction of rock mass response on time-series data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new encryption scheme is developed by employing congruential generators and Arneodos chaotic dynamical system. In the offered work we have applied a chaotic map for shuffling and a quadratic congruential generator for substitution. The objective of this work is to offer a robust image encryption technique that satisfies the security criteria. Moreover, the cryptanalysis of this scheme is difficult because we have performed a combination of chaotic shuffling and substitution boxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manual assessment of biomedical imaging based diagnostics is limited as it is time-consuming and subjective. Bio-inspired diagnostics applications on embedded and mobile devices are becoming more popular as they overcome these limitations and aid in early detection and diagnosis. The neural theory of visual attention puts forward that the processing resources are dedicated to more important information, for resource saving and performance improvement. Moreover, adversarial learning can potentially alleviate the various biases of the human cognitive system. The limited performance of the current lightweight network approaches can be attributed to the absence of above-mentioned properties of the human cognition. Accordingly, we introduce GLAN, a lightweight attention based network that is particularly well suited to embedded and mobile devices. GLAN's design follows lightweight architecture design principles for encoder-decoder design. To improve performance a twofold novel strategy is adopted. Firstly, we equip the encoder and the decoder with lightweight attention mechanisms to increase their focus and improve segmentation performance. Secondly, adversarial learning is employed with augmentation to increase the generalization ability of the lightweight attention network. e have evaluated our GLAN on three different applications including lung segmentation, digestive tract polyp segmentation and optic disc segmentation. GLAN is quite competitive in terms of segmentation performance while comprehensively outperforming recent alternatives in terms of computational requirements. Specifically, GLAN requires 94.17%, 78.18%, 80.95% and 67.56% less computational parameters as compared with four recent lightweight alternatives. This advocates its application in real-time biomedical imaging diagnostics on embedded and mobile devices in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we present a substantial image encryption system constructed on deep convolutional neural networks for key generation to reduce processing power, complexity, and time consumption, as well as a creative method of DNA sequence operations and scrambling to encrypt digital images. A two-dimensional Logistic map is used to perform a chaotic scrambling. The results of the experiments, as well as security analysis such as statistical, differential, and key space analysis, demonstrated that the suggested method may achieve a high level of security while remaining efficient. With UACI and NPCR of 33.4 and 99.6, respectively, the method achieves an average entropy of 7.999 and a near-zero correlation. The algorithm's efficiency is also evaluated to the state of the art in encryption techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethyl acetate extract of the marine bacterial strain Streptomyces rochei sp. 81 was purified by silica gel column chromatography to obtain three diketopiperazines (1–3) and one straight chain fatty acid (4). The compounds were identified as cyclo(L-leu-N-ethenethiol-L-pro) (1), cyclo(L-Leu-L-Pro) (2), cyclo(L-Pro-D-Tyr) (3), and 2,4-dimethyldocasonoic acid (4) by HR-ESI-MS and NMR techniques. One new (1) and three known compounds (2–4) were screened for carbonic anhydrase-II (CA-II) inhibition and as a result 1 and 3 were found to be the most active compounds with IC50 of 9.8 ± 0.56 and 10.9 ± 0.88 μM, respectively. The results indicated that these two compounds (1 and 3) can be promising candidates for anticancer drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenyl-substituted thiourea derivatives (2-21) of memantine (1) were synthesized through a sonication-assisted single-step chemical reaction. Urease inhibition and cytotoxicity against 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells were also performed. The synthesized compounds were characterized using UV/VIS, FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR (BB, DEPT-90, DEPT-135), and mass spectrometric techniques. All of these compounds were found to be new, except 2, 14, 17, and 21. These compounds showed good activity against the urease (IC50 = 36.5 ± 0.20 to 5.6 ± 0.30 µM) while acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) was used as a standard (IC50 = 20.43 ± 0.43 µM). Compounds 6, 7, 12, and 20 were found to be the most potent urease inhibitors. Among all compounds, 5, 7, 11, 16, and 17-21 were found to be toxic against 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells, doxorubicin (IC50 = 0.1 ± 0.002 µM) was used as a standard. Urease inhibition activity of the parent drug memantine (1) was also evaluated and interestingly to the best of our knowledge we are reporting the repurposing of memantine as a urease inhibitor for the first time. (IC50 = 44.3 ± 0.52 µM). Memantine was also found to be noncytotoxic against 3T3 normal cells. The kinetics and molecular docking studies were performed for potent urease inhibitors 6, 7, 12, and 20. These compounds exhibited enhanced interaction with the active site residues of the urease in a competitive manner (Ki = 4.1-8.6 µM). Among these, compounds 6 and 12 from this library have the potential to be studied as anti-ulcer agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The security of digital information is one of the significant problems of the existing world. In this work, we have proposed a dual-layer information hiding mechanism. We have utilized 3-Cell Cellular Neural Network (CNN) system to generate a pseudorandom number generator to fulfill diffusion requirements of a cryptosystem, and then utilizing highly non-linear substitution boxes (S-boxes) to complete the confusion process of cryptosystem design. The encrypted data are the hide in the cover image, the data hiding process comprises three steps, generation of transform matrix from the cover image, embedding matrix from transform matrix and secret encrypted image and the last step is to obtain a stego image. Less computational complexity without affecting the strength of the security scheme is the need of the day. Due to the simplicity and computational efficiency of the diffusion process of a 3-cell cellular neural network, the confusion created by predefined S-boxes, and the data hiding scheme effectively reduces the time for encryption and data hiding. The proposed scheme has been tested using state-of-the-art key performance indicators including information theory-based analysis, Histogram based analysis, analysis based on pixels difference, correlation-based measurements, and distance-based analysis. the results of this analysis show the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the widespread accessibility of the Internet, communicating and sharing multimedia content between people is extremely easy today. At the same time, however, a critical issue is the secure transfer of personal and protected material. In this article, we have proposed a new information security mechanism. The proposed system comprises two phases. In the first phase, the digital data is encrypted and in the second phase, the encrypted data is embedded into the cover data. The encryption scheme consists of both diffusion and confusion. For diffusion, we have utilized a logistic chaotic map-based novel diffusion. For confusion pre-defined highly nonlinear S-boxes are used. This mechanism provides dual layers of security to the confidential information, which makes it difficult for the intruder to extract the confidential information. The security analysis of the encryption and data hiding schemes are carried out and tabulated. For implementation on hardware the time analysis is carried out, and the time for encryption and data hiding comes out to be 1.662 seconds, which is reasonable for real-time implementation. The security analysis of encryption and data hiding shows the immunity of the proposed system to withstand different attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, highly nonlinear substitution boxes (S-boxes) are generated by utilizing a chaotic map accompanied by the Grey wolf optimization technique. To check their applicability in the encryption scheme, an encryption scheme utilizing a three dimensional (3D) logistic map and the proposed S-boxes for confusion is proposed. The performance analyses of suggested S-boxes are performed and compared with existing techniques. Moreover, security analysis of projected encryption scheme is also performed and tabulated. The results show the strength of the proposed S-boxes in the design of encryption schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear confusion component is one of the most important part of any modern cipher. The strength and robustness of modern cryptosystem are subjected to the cryptographic properties of this nonlineaer confusion component namely S-boxes. The principle aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, we have anticipated an innovative approach of producing S-boxes by employing the Cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) an alternative to algebraic and chaotic generation of S-boxes. Secondly, we have also proposed a new encryption technique for information confidentiality of digital color images. The suggested image encryption technique is based on generated S-boxes and Arnold map. The projected information privacy mechanism is verified against a variety of cryptographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of national research databases has become more prevalent for studying various neurosurgical diseases. Despite the advantages of using large databases to glean clinical insight, variation remains in the methodology and reporting among studies. Using STROBE and RECORD guidelines, we evaluated the quality of reporting of the database literature investigating surgical management of benign pituitary adenomas. In this systematic review of the PubMed/MEDLINE database, we identified studies employing large national research databases of patients who underwent surgery for benign pituitary adenoma. We evaluated each of these studies using the STROBE-RECORD reporting guideline criteria to assess their quality. A total of 42 studies from 2003 to 2020 were identified for inclusion. The two raters demonstrated a κ = 0.228 with 84% overall agreement. Commonly underreported criteria included bias (discussed in 56% of studies), main result reporting (70%), subgroup analysis (69%), generalizability (68%), and funding (57%). These factors, in addition to the data sources/measurement criteria, also had the largest discrepancies between reviewers. About 20% of administrative database reviews did not accurately address bias or control for confounding variables. We found frequent underreporting of crucial information and criteria that can be challenging to identify may limit large database studies of pituitary adenomas. Improved reporting of certain criteria is critical to optimize reader understanding of large database studies. This would allow better dissemination and implementation of study findings, especially as the use of these research tools increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the relationship between instigated workplace incivility, organizational justice, and employees' turnover intention. We examine the organizational justice-outcomes' relationship in the presence of Islamic work ethics (IWE) and trust in leader (TIL) in the tourism industry. Drawing upon equity theory, we analyzed 363 valid responses via PLS-SEM. The two–wave time lagged design was used for data collection. Our results revealed that Islamic work ethics and trust in leader do affect the hypothesized relationships, signifying those employees high on Islamic work ethics do not tend to show instigated workplace incivility. Recommendations are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the (a)symmetry effects of climate changes on economic growth in 179 countries using panel data over the period 1990–2020. The findings of the linear ARDL model reveal that average changes in most of the climate indicators have detrimental effects on economic growth, whereas mean sea level pressure contributes positively to economic growth during the examined period. Similarly, the influence of extreme values of climatic indicators in the form of minimum temperature, maximum precipitation, and natural disasters dummy used for the flood, drought, storm, and sea-level rise on economic growth is detrimental. Yet, the findings reveal that minimum precipitation significantly enhances economic growth. We also show that both positive and negative mean deviations of temperature and precipitation cause significant reductions in economic growth. Finally, asymmetry effects were also found while investigating the effects of climate change on the economic growth of 6 continents and three regions of 3 major continents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most critical aspects of this technologically progressive era is the propagation of information through an unsecured communication channel. The information is electronically transported as binary bits. One of the most important issues in the existing world is the secrecy of these digital contents. In this paper, we used Chebyshev's polynomial-based, chaotic maps to propose a new technique for encrypting images. The proposed encryption brings confusion as well as diffusion to the system presented, which is one of the utmost essential aspects of the encryption method. The confusion process is performed in two stages, XORing the original image with the Chebyshev polynomial generated matrices and scrambling, the chaotic scrambling matrix is also generated by the Chebyshev polynomial generated matrix, which increases the sensitivity of the cryptosystem to the key which initialize the parameters for Chebyshev polynomial. We checked our planned scheme against various performance analyses and contrasted them with established outcomes. The scheme is accomplished by offering excellent privacy to digital images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we report the synthesis, carbonic anhydrase-II (CA-II) inhibition and structure–activity relationship studies of cinnamaldehyde-clubbed thiosemicarbazones derivatives. The derivatives showed potent activities in the range of 10.3 ± 0.62–46.6 ± 0.62 µM. Among all the synthesized derivatives, compound 3n (IC50 = 10.3 ± 0.62 µM), 3g (IC50 = 12.1 ± 1.01 µM), and 3h (IC50 = 13.4 ± 0.52 µM) showed higher inhibitory activity as compared to the standard inhibitor, acetazolamide. Furthermore, molecular docking of all the active compounds was carried out to predict their behavior of molecular binding. The docking results indicate that the most active hit (3n) specifically mediate ionic interaction with the Zn ion in the active site of CA-II. Furthermore, the The199 and Thr200 support the binding of thiosemicarbazide moiety of 3n, while Gln 92 supports the interactions of all the compounds by hydrogen bonding. In addition to Gln92, few other residues including Asn62, Asn67, The199, and Thr200 play important role in the stabilization of these molecules in the active site by specifically providing H-bonds to the thiosemicarbazide moiety of compounds. The docking score of active hits are found in range of − 6.75 to − 4.42 kcal/mol, which indicates that the computational prediction correlates well with the in vitro results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we empirically examine the association between sustainable development, adjusted net savings, financial development, economic growth and resources rent, using panel ordinary least squares technique, and panel generalized method of moments for a yearly panel data of three South Asia emerging economies, during the period of study from 1990 to 2020. We observed positive and significant effect of sustainable development goal index, financial development, and economic growth on the adjusted net saving, while the inflation rate and natural resource rent have negative and significant effect on sustainable development in South Asian emerging countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a retraction note for an article titled "A novel image encryption technique based on Hénon chaotic map and S8 symmetric group." The article has been retracted by the editor-in-chief and the publisher due to concerns raised during an investigation. These concerns include citations that do not support the claims made in the text, non-standard phrasing, and image irregularities. The author, Majid Khan, disagrees with the retraction. The original article can still be found online. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a retraction note for an article titled "A copyright protection using watermarking scheme based on nonlinear permutation and its quality metrics." The article has been retracted by the editor-in-chief and the publisher due to concerns found during an investigation, including unsupported citations, non-standard phrasing, and image irregularities. The author Majid Khan disagrees with the retraction, and the publisher has been unable to contact the other author, Tariq Shah. Springer Nature, the publisher, remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. The original article can still be found online. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a retraction note for an article titled "An efficient chaotic image encryption scheme." The article has been retracted by the editor-in-chief and the publisher due to concerns raised during an investigation. These concerns include citations that do not support the claims made in the text, non-standard phrasing, and image irregularities. The editor-in-chief no longer has confidence in the results and conclusions of the article. The author Majid Khan disagrees with the retraction, and the publisher has been unable to contact the other author, Tariq Shah. Springer Nature, the publisher, remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a retraction note for an article titled "Construction of S-box based on chaotic Boolean functions and its application in image encryption." The article has been retracted by the editor-in-chief and the publisher due to concerns found during an investigation, including unsupported citations, non-standard phrasing, and image irregularities. The author Majid Khan disagrees with the retraction, and the publisher has been unable to contact the other authors. The original article can still be found online. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Umbrella review and network meta-analysis of diagnostic imaging test accuracy studies in differentiating between brain tumor progression versus pseudoprogression and radionecrosis" published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology. The correction addresses an error in the affiliation details of several authors. The correct affiliation for Mohammad Amin Sadeghi, Sachin K. Gujar, Vivek Yedavalli, and Majid Khan should be the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Division of Neuroradiology, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, USA. The original article has been corrected. The publisher, Springer Nature, remains neutral regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. [Extracted from the article]

Image fusion is the technique to obtain an image, possessing spatially and spectrally enhanced as compared to the individual high spatial and high spectral images. After obtaining a detailed image, propagation over an insecure channel is a critical issue to address. In this article, we have projected an image encryption structure for the fused image resulted from the multi-focus sensors. The projected scheme offered confusion as well as diffusion, which are the core parts of any symmetric cryptosystem. The projected cryptosystem has been tested against various security analysis and tabulated. The Number of Pixel Change Rate (NPCR) and Unified Average Change Intensity (UACI) are 99.62 and 33.49 shows the strength of the proposed encryption against differential attacks. For real-time implementation the time analysis is performed, for image fusion and encryption the algorithm only takes 1.268 s which makes it suitable for real-time implementation. The analysis is compared with the existing state-of-the-art techniques. The designed system is capable of obtaining spectrally and spatially enhanced image from multi-focus images and provide a high level of security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the recent advancement in the field of the Internet of Medical things (IoMT). To facilitate doctors and patients, in the process of diagnosis and treatment, the medical imaging equipment is connected to the IoMT. During communication over the network, these medical images are subjected to various threads. In this work, we have proposed a dual-layer data confidentiality scheme, firstly it encrypts the secret medical images followed by a data hiding scheme. The encryption scheme possesses diffusion and confusion, for confusion the encryption scheme utilizes logistic and tent maps for the generation of S-boxes. For data hiding, it utilizes Hessenberg and singular value decomposition (SVD). The proposed scheme is applied to highly correlated medical images. The proposed technique provides dual security to the confidential information and makes it difficult for the intruder to extract the confidential information. The encryption scheme is evaluated by using the standard performance indicators including statistical analysis, differential analysis, and NIST analysis, etc. The encrypted images have the highest practically achievable entropy of 7.999 which is closest to the ideal value of 8. The data hiding scheme is evaluated by using statistical analysis, Distance-based analysis, analysis based on pixel difference, and information theory. Both the analysis of encryption and data hiding are satisfactory and the results show the strength of the dual-layer security scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, an encryption technique depending on discrete dynamical chaotic maps and Brownian motion was offered. The authors of the understudy cryptosystem claim the security of encryption structure by some statistical analysis. We report cryptanalysis of a recently proposed scheme by using some cryptographic attacks. The attacks performed in this work are chosen-plaintext attack, known-plaintext attack, and chosen-ciphertext attack. The offered procedure is cryptanalyzed by taking just one chosen-plain image, one chosen-cipher image, and only one pair of plaintext and ciphertext, which shows the scheme's vulnerability. Moreover, we have offered an improved cryptosystem depending on the Basin chaotic map, Gingerbread man map, and Brownian motion, providing a robust security level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postoperative bowel complications after non-shunt-related neurosurgical procedures are relatively rare. In an effort to identify the primary risk factors, we evaluated postoperative bowel complications in cranial, endovascular, and spinal procedures in neurosurgery patients using our own institutional case series along with a literature review. We identified severe postoperative bowel complications that occurred at our institution after non-shunt-related neurosurgical procedures between July 2016 and December 2018. We also completed a systematic review of PubMed/MEDLINE using search terms related to bowel complications. At our institution, 7 patients (average age 49.7 ± 9.5 years, range 34–60; no apparent sex predilection) had severe postoperative bowel complications after undergoing a total of 10 neurosurgical procedures. Diagnosis was on average 1 week postoperatively (range 5–13 days), and the time between radiographic/clinical diagnosis and either surgery or death was 1.3 ± 1.4 days (range 0–4 days). Bowel perforation occurred in 4 patients. Five of the patients died, 3 as a direct result of the bowel complication. In the literature review, we identified 6487 spine and 66 cranial and/or endovascular bowel complications after neurosurgical procedures. Our case series and literature review demonstrate that severe postoperative bowel complications after non-shunt-related neurosurgical procedures, while rare, carry significant morbidity/mortality despite prompt and aggressive management. These can also happen without direct injury to bowel tissue, instead occurring as sequelae of inflammatory processes, as well as from delayed mobility, extended use of opiate narcotics, and lack of standardized protocols to ensure early bowel movements that likely stems from unfamiliarity with this potentially devastating complication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional seismic data with deep wells information has been used to interpret the depositional setting of Miocene sediments in the Offshore Indus Basin, Pakistan. The current study has implications for understanding the complex subsurface geology of the Offshore Indus Basin, Pakistan. Two seismic profiles were selected to interpret the sedimentary packages within the Miocene sediments. The interpreted seismic data showed four different recognizable system tracts in the Miocene sediments. These include Lowstand, Highstand and Falling Stage System Tracts. The sedimentary packages differ in regional setup depending on the location within the offshore basin. The eastern part (as highlighted by seismic Profile-2 and Profile-3) exhibits more complex sedimentary geometries in comparison to western part (as highlighted by seismic Profile-1). The earlier deposition is controlled by lowstand settings when the sea-level dropped below the shelf margin leading to incision over the shelf. This led to the deposition of Lowstand fan systems. This was followed by a rise in sea-level leading the way for the carbonate deposition over the shelf. An intermittent unconformity is identified by another set of lowstand fans and truncation patterns. This unconformity halted the carbonate deposition over the shelf and transported the sediments to the basin floor. Later, rise in sea-level resumed the carbonate deposition over the shelf. Another sea-level drop is noticed and sediments are interpreted to be moving towards the basin leading to a Falling Stage System Tract and easily identified by regressive onlaps. This unconformity is more pronounced towards east where it eroded the carbonates. Downlaps seen above this unconformity confirm the deepening conditions leading the way for the deposition of finer sediments. Further drop in sea-level is seen leading the way for coarse sediment deposition. We believe that this study would provide strong support for researching global passive margins from economic perspective as well as understanding complex depositional framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strength of any block cipher depends on the key size, total number of rounds and the strength of confusion component against differential cryptanalysis. Data encryption standard (DES) as a block cipher has enjoyed a worldwide acceptance for more than three decades. It is a symmetric block cipher and considered to be very strong against all known attacks at that time. It uses 64-bit key size and block size, but the advancement in technology results in increasing the speed of the computers and thus makes DES not secure any more. The shorter key size is the weak area of DES. In this article, we have increased the block size as well as the key size from 64 to 128 bits. The internal structure of our proposed mechanism ultimately changed all other components of DES accordingly. By this improvement, our anticipated scheme is more secure due to its robust due to its confusion and diffusion components. The algorithm is applied on the plain text and on images. We have performed the standard benchmarks statistical analyses on our suggested encryption scheme in order to authenticate the anticipated mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chaos influence different fields of science and technology. The development of sciences is at peak expected to the rapid broadcast of information with the smart machine in constrained resources atmosphere. With the help of our smartphone, we can easily access the information within no time and with much ease. This ease makes our information open and can be accessed from the web or misuse by any person. To secure our information on the internet of things (IOTs), lightweight cryptographic algorithms were introduced. We offered an efficient lightweight confusion component scheme constructed on the composition of chaotic iterative maps. The proposed chaotic lightweight substitution box (S-box) offers decent cryptographic characteristics. The suggested chaotic S-box is used for adding a confusion layer in small lightweight block cipher algorithms. The outcome of cryptographic characteristics displays that the anticipated chaotic Substitution box is appropriate for the lightweight block cipher in a constrained source environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonlinear confusion component is one of an integral part of any modern block cipher. This nonlinear confusion component is used to hides the relationship between the ciphertext and the key. The primary objective of this article is to formulate a new mechanism for the construction this confusion component. Usually substitution box (S-box) is used to achieve this kind of characteristics in block ciphers. We have utilized deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences for the construction of new S-boxes with optimized cryptographic characteristics. The projected technique fundamentally optimized the DNA sequences along with traditional confusion component to generate a completely new S-box. The obtained S-boxes have the same cryptographic strength as a parent S-box have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The security of digital content during transmission and storage through insecure communication links and databases is a challenging issue in today's world. In this article, an encryption scheme based on fractal Tromino and Chebyshev polynomial-based generated chaotic matrix is presented. The scheme fulfills the most fundamental aspect of encryption that is diffusion and confusion. For confusion highly non-linear, pre-defined S-boxes are used. The proposed scheme has been tested using state-of-the-art key performance indicators including differential analysis, statistical analysis. Information entropy analysis, mean square error, and NIST-based randomness analysis. The encrypted images have the highest practically achievable entropy of 7.999 and the time analysis shows that the proposed system is suitable for real-time implementation. The rest of the results indicates that the proposed cryptosystem possesses high immunity toward various attacks. The security analysis compared with the existing scheme shows the strength of the suggested scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of digital contents has increased tremendously in this modern era. In fact, people spend more time on internet than ever which urged the computer scientists and mathematicians to develop new techniques for data security during transmission and when data is at rest. To cover a digital content is not a one-size-fits all type solution, in fact it requires multiple techniques. In this article we have used elliptic curves, finite state machines, Pauli spin half matrices for image encryption. Elliptic curve discrete log problem makes it difficult for the adversary to extract any information about the key. To authenticate the robustness of the system against cryptographic attacks several statistical analyses are performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article introduced a novel idea for information hiding namely steganography. We have used new notions for the construction of the nonlinear component for block cipher based on inverse LA-semigroups. This nonlinear component fundamentally provides confidentiality in the proposed steganographic algorithm. The construction of the algorithm is fundamentally twofold. Firstly, we have constructed a novel scheme to design confusion component namely substitution box (S-box). Secondly, we have utilized the anticipated nonlinear component in digital steganography. The suggested algorithm is tested for different standard digital images. The authentication of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]