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Botnets can simultaneously control millions of Internet-connected devices to launch damaging cyber-attacks that pose significant threats to the Internet. In a botnet, bot-masters communicate with the command and control server using various communication protocols. One of the widely used communication protocols is the ‘Domain Name System’ (DNS) service, an essential Internet service. Bot-masters utilise Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA) and fast-flux techniques to avoid static blacklists and reverse engineering while remaining flexible. However, botnet’s DNS communication generates anomalous DNS traffic throughout the botnet life cycle, and such anomaly is considered an indicator of DNS-based botnets presence in the network. Despite several approaches proposed to detect botnets based on DNS traffic analysis; however, the problem still exists and is challenging due to several reasons, such as not considering significant features and rules that contribute to the detection of DNS-based botnet. Therefore, this paper examines the abnormality of DNS traffic during the botnet lifecycle to extract significant enriched features. These features are further analysed using two machine learning algorithms. The union of the output of two algorithms proposes a novel hybrid rule detection model approach. Two benchmark datasets are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in terms of detection accuracy and false-positive rate. The experimental results show that the proposed approach has a 99.96% accuracy and a 1.6% false-positive rate, outperforming other state-of-the-art DNS-based botnet detection approaches.

The paper addresses the debate on AI robots’ legal status, which often confuses the jurisprudence and decision-makers between these synthetic drugs’ legal effect and the legal personality status. If only the theories of jurisprudence or philosophers’ opinions contribute to the law’s development, engineers with their inventions also contribute to its effect. It considers the trends in this field and the actions made by specialists in artificial intelligence, and the independence of robots based on the latter. The lack of systems of responsibility traditional to absorb the damage caused by AI technologies. The European civil law commission for robotics is awarded the most sophisticated and independent robot’s legal personality for holding them responsible for themselves and not human beings. Still, this proposal faces many legal, moral, and philosophical challenges. According to this framework, the paper aims to shed more light on, discuss and analyze such an intelligent position robot might have from legal, ethical, and philosophical aspects. The article also explores the possibility of granting autonomous robots a new legal status that removes them from the circle of things and places them within the scope of personal. What is the point of giving this legal personality to robots based on artificial intelligence advocated by international institutions and researchers in law? The results show that granting legal personality within intelligent robots’ philosophical concept is possible as it exists. However, robots’ moral nature differs from a legal person’s existence because we see and feel the latter

Blockchain is a decentralized database that stores a growing chain of blocks formed and secured by the consensus of a network node. Blockchain technology is a solution to applications and smart programs so that no third party (peer-to-peer network) is required to store and verify transactions in a safe and reliable manner, such as cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, health care, and the Internet of things (IoT). However, this technology suffers from some limitations, such as network latency and slow transaction validation. In this paper, the proposed method is implemented and discussed by improving the topology of the peer-to-peer blockchain structure to a decentralized topology (structured topology in clusters). This aims to speed up transactions broadcasting time, as well as to reduce the enormous time for nodes consensus mechanism to validate transactions through the intra- and inter-cluster parallel mining in the Proof of Work (PoW) mechanism. The test results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method in reducing the consensus time, as well as improve the scalability of the network.

Background: Patient satisfaction is one of the major outcomes used in many countries to assess the quality of healthcare. Aim of the study: To assess the patient satisfaction towards health services in Al-Qaim city and its suburbs. Methodology: The researchers formulated a questionnaire, write them down in Google form Application and then questionnaires were reviewed by two experts. After that the link was sent disseminated to people residing at Al-qaim city. Two weeks later the researchers stopped looking for responses and spreadsheet was sent for statistical analysis. Results: The overall findings of this study revealed that 75% of respondents were unsatisfied with healthcare services.

Important paper-based documents exposed to forgery such as: official certificates, birth, marriage, death certificates, selling and buying documents and other legal documents is more and more serious and sophisticated. With the purposes of fraud, appropriation of property, job application and assignment in order to swindle public authorities, this forgery has led to material loss, belief deterioration as well as social instability. There are many techniques has been proposed to overcome this issue such as: ink stamps, live signatures, documented the transaction in third party like the court or notary. In this paper, it’s proposed a feasible solution for forgery prevention for paper-based documents using cloud computing application. With the application of quick response bidirectional barcode and the usage of hash algorithm. The study aims at developing an electronic verification system for official and issued books (documents, endorsements, and other official books) to/from different sections of the Institute using QR technology.

Introduction: A cancer diagnosis is associated with profound psychological distress that potentially can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) are a heterogenous group of indolent and aggressive cancer diseases with high variability in treatment selections and patient outcomes. Some patients are chronically ill with recurrent need for mild chemotherapy whereas others face immediately life-threatening, yet curable disease. To gain valuable insights into the psychological distress associated with NHLs, the present study investigated the incident psychotropic drug (PD - antidepressants, anxiolytics, and antipsychotics) use, contact patterns to psychiatric departments, and intentional self-harm (including suicide) in Danish NHL patients relative to sex- and age matched individuals from the background population. Methods: The study was carried out as a nationwide population-based matched cohort study based on prospectively collected data from several Danish registries. All adult NHL patients (≥18 years) diagnosed between 2005 and 2015 were identified in the Danish Lymphoma Registry and included if they had not been treated with any kind of PD within the last 10 years prior to date of NHL diagnosis (index date). NHL patients were matched on age and sex with five random comparators from the Danish background population on the index date. Comparators had to be alive and without PD use 10 years prior to the index date. Incident PD use was defined as first redeemed prescription of PD after index date. Prescriptions were captured in the National Prescription Registry and described by cumulative incidences using the Aalen-Johansen estimator with death and NHL relapse as competing risk. Contacts with psychiatric departments and registration of intentional self-harm or completed suicide were captured in the Danish National Patient Registry. Patients were subcategorized according to type of lymphoma (Table 1). Results: In total, 7,201 NHL patients and 36,005 matched comparators were included (median follow-up 7.1 years). Follicular lymphoma (FL, 44.4%) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL, 41.0%) were the most common subtypes (Table 2). Two-year cumulative incidence of PD use was higher in NHL patients overall (16.2%, 95%CI 15.4-17.0%) compared to matched comparators (5.7%, 95%CI 5.5-5.9%). Patients with aggressive NHL subtypes tended to have the highest incidence of PD use (Figure 1). Antidepressants (two-year cumulative incidence, 9.0%, 95%CI 8.4-9.6) and anxiolytics (8.2%, 95%CI 7.6-8.8) were the most used PDs in all NHL subtypes. The risk of PD use was higher in the first years following diagnosis, but except for patients with indolent NHL subtypes, the risk of PD use normalized over time to that of the background population. As for the risk of any psychiatric department contacts, there was no difference in two-year cumulative incidences between NHL patients (range 0.6-0.9%) and the matched comparators (range 0.6%-0.9%), whereas the two-year cumulative incidence of intentional self-harm and suicide was slightly higher for NHL patients (0.3%) compared to the matched comparators (0.2%, p=0.01). Conclusion: This study suggests that NHL patients have a significantly higher risk of mental health problems compared to the Danish background population, (when) using PD prescriptions as a proxy measure. The risk of intentional self-harm and completed suicide was also higher, but numerical differences were very small. Overall, the results emphasize the need for directing clinical attention on mental health in newly diagnosed NHL patients and screening for relevant symptoms during follow-up to provide best possible support to patients suffering from anxiety and depression. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Øvlisen: Abbvie: Other: Travel expenses. Kragholm: Novartis: Honoraria. Nielsen: Lundbeck: Honoraria, Other: Investigator, Research Funding; Otsuka Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Other: Prior Advisor, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Honoraria; Astra Zeneca: Honoraria, Other: Prior advisor; Janssen & Cilag: Honoraria, Other: Investigator; Servier: Honoraria; Teva A/S: Honoraria; Eli Lilly: Honoraria, Other: Prior Advisor; Takeda: Other: Prior advisor; Medivir: Other; Boehringer: Other: Investigator. Brown: BMS: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Roche: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartys: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Incyte: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Dahl-Soerensen: Takeda: Other: Travel grant. Frederiksen: Novartis: Research Funding; Alexion: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Janssen Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Mannering: Novartis: Research Funding; Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (SOBI): Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Jørgensen: Gilead: Consultancy; Roche: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy. Clausen: Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Abbvie: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel expences ASH 2019; Gilead: Consultancy, Other: Travel expences 15th ICML . El-Galaly: ROCHE Ltd: Ended employment in the past 24 months; Abbvie: Other: Speakers fee.

Objective Recent clinical studies have suggested an increased risk of elevated arterial pressure in patients with hydronephrosis. Animals with experimentally induced hydronephrosis develop hypertension, which is correlated to the degree of obstruction and increased oxidative stress. In this prospective study we investigated changes in arterial pressure, oxidative stress, and nitric oxide (NO) homeostasis following correction of hydronephrosis. Methods Ambulatory arterial pressure (24 h) was monitored in pediatric patients with hydronephrosis (n = 15) before and after surgical correction, and the measurements were compared with arterial pressure measurements in two control groups, i.e. healthy controls (n = 8) and operated controls (n = 8). Markers of oxidative stress and NO homeostasis were analyzed in matched urine and plasma samples. Results The preoperative mean arterial pressure was significantly higher in hydronephrotic patients [83 mmHg; 95% confidence interval (CI) 80–88 mmHg] than in healthy controls (74 mmHg; 95% CI 68–80 mmHg; p < 0.05), and surgical correction of ureteral obstruction reduced arterial pressure (76 mmHg; 95% CI 74–79 mmHg; p < 0.05). Markers of oxidative stress (i.e., 11- dehydroTXB2, PGF2α, 8-iso-PGF2α, 8,12-iso-iPF2α-VI) were significantly increased (p < 0.05) in patients with hydronephrosis compared with both control groups, and these were reduced following surgery (p < 0.05). Interestingly, there was a trend for increased NO synthase activity and signaling in hydronephrosis, which may indicate compensatory mechanism(s). Conclusion This study demonstrates increased arterial pressure and oxidative stress in children with hydronephrosis compared with healthy controls, which can be restored to normal levels by surgical correction of the obstruction. Once reference data on ambulatory blood pressure in this young age group become available, we hope cut-off values can be defined for deciding whether or not to correct hydronephrosis surgically. Keywords Blood pressure . Hydronephrosis . Hypertension . Nitric oxide . Oxidative stress . Ureteral obstruction

In this study, the reduced scale wall models were used (they are believed to resemble as much as possible the field conditions) to study the shrinkage behavior of reactive powder concrete (RPC) base restrained walls. Six base restrained RPC walls were casted in different length/height ratios of two ratios of steel fiber by volume in Summer. These walls were restrained by reinforced concrete bases to provide the continuous base restraint to the walls. The mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete investigated were; compressive strength between (75.3 – 140.1) MPa, splitting tensile strength between (5.7 – 13.9) MPa, flexural tensile strength (7.7 – 24.5) MPa, and static modulus of elasticity (32.7 – 47.1)GPa. Based on the observations of this work, it was found that the cracks did not develop in the reduced scale of the reactive powder concrete (RPC) walls restrained from movement at their bases for different L/H ratios (2, 5, and 10) and for two ratio of steel fiber (1% & 2%) during 90 days period of drying conditions. Moreover, the shrinkage values increase toward the edges. Based on the results of this work, the increase in the maximum shrinkage values of walls with 1% steel fiber were (29%, 28%, 28%) of the maximum shrinkage values of walls with 2% steel fiber of length/height ratios of (2, 5, and 10) respectively. The experimental observation in beam specimens showed that the free shrinkage, tensile strain capacity and elastic tensile strain capacity (at date of cracking) of beams with 1% steel fiber were higher than the beams with 2% steel fiber by about (24%), (45%) and (42%) respectively

knowing the desire of female students to belong to the community through the social desirability, and to identify the physical psychological manifestations and this is reflected in the level of performance of artistic gymnastics skills on the four devices, the relationship between the social desire and the physical psychological manifestations and performance of the artistic gymnastics skills. The sample of the research female students of the second stage in the faculty of physical education and sports sciences at the University of Babylon-Iraq. with number (30) for the year 2017-2018, use the approach descriptive in the method interconnections relationship and standard level, and use statistical instruments, Arithmetic mean, Standard deviation, Standard level, chi-square x2, cronbach alpha(α) and Kuder-Richardson for stability the scales, and after the distribution of the two scals on the sample and applying the tests of the skills of the gymnastic, the results showed moderate, high and good values, direct and inverse relationships, the results showed that the social desire and the performance of artistic gymnastics skills in the moderate level, physical psychological manifestations in the higher level, the conclusions there is an direct relationship between social desirability and performance of artistic gymnastics skills, and inverse relationship between the physical psychological manifestations with the skills of ground movements and direct with skills of the other device RESUMO Conhecer o desejo das alunas de pertencer à comunidade por meio da desejabilidade social, e identificar as manifestações psicológicas físicas se reflete no nível de atuação das habilidades de ginástica artística nos quatro aparelhos. O principal objetivo do estudo foi verificar a relação entre o desejo social e as manifestações psicológicas e físicas no desempenho das habilidades de ginástica artística. A amostra foi constituída por das alunas s da segunda etapa na faculdade de educação física e ciências do esporte da Universidade da Babilônia-Iraque. número (30) para o ano de 2017-2018, utilizam a abordagem descritiva na relação de interconexões do método e nível padrão, e uso de instrumentos estatísticos, média aritmética, desvio padrão, nível padrão, qui-quadrado x2, cronbach alfa (α) e Kuder-Richardson para estabilidade das escalas, e após a distribuição das duas scals na amostra e aplicando os testes das habilidades da ginástica, os resultados mostraram entre moderada, alta e bons valores e relações diretas e inversas. Os resultados mostraram que o desejo social e o desempenho de habilidades de ginástica artística se situaram no nível moderado, o resultado que o manifestações psicológicas físicas no nível superior e uma relação direta entre desejabilidade social e desempenho de habilidades de ginástica artística, ocorreu relação inversa entre as manifestações psicológicas físicas com as habilidades dos movimentos terrestres e direta com habilidades dos outros dispositivo.

The world lives in a technology revolution that started from invention the computer system, the Internet and now in the Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of every things (IoE). This revolution impacted the human life strongly, by depending on this technology to enhance our life and inventing new products depending on information technology like social media, mobile applications, video games and so on. This research will present the simplest, yet efficient way to build a classic Arcade Machine by using a Raspberry Pi development board, also this research will highlight how to build and install all related components, such as body structure, buttons and joysticks, programming the Raspberry Pi and adding the video game files. Later, the research will explain how to connect the Arcade Machine to the Internet for remote operation by using MCU ESP8266, relays, and the Wi-Fi function on the Raspberry Pi itself. Beside the video games, the machine can behave as an ordinary computer for the Internet browsing, music listening, image processing, documenting or doing some programing tasks, as the Raspbian operating system has python programming apps and it is possible to install any other programing language needed to execute tasks on Raspberry Pi microcontroller.

One form of data is digital images, because of their widespread of frequent exchange over the Internet it is necessary to preserve the security and privacy of the images transmitted. There are many image encryption techniques that have different security levels and there are many standards and protocols for testing the quality of encryption security. The cipher images can be evaluated using various quality measuring criteria, these measures quantify certain features of the image. If there are many methods that can be applied to secure images; the question is what is the most powerful scheme that can be used among these methods? This research try to answer this question by taking three different encryption methods (rivest cipher 5 (RC5), chaotic and permutation) and measure their quality using the peek signal to noise ratio (PSNR), correlation, entropy, number of pixels changes rate (NPCR) and unified average changing intensity (UACI), the results of these criteria were input to a fuzzy logic system that was used to find the best one among them

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a valuable tool in medical imaging, but it provides limited quantitative utility in a number of important applications, such as mapping of tracer accumulation in small tissues and quantitative assessment of factors affecting tracer uptake. We aimed to develop a quantification approach based on signal modelling, to address the above limitations. Our signal modelling approach allows for a comprehensive description of target and background signals. We used in silico simulations to exemplify the quantitative utility of signal modelling in a number of applications and conducted scans of standardized PET phantoms to validate our computer simulation algorithms. The simulations showed that the modelling approach allows applications not supported by current techniques, such as estimation of activity fractions of sub-resolution small tissues and accurate quantification of the effect of biological factors, such as hypoxia, on tracer accumulation. There was strong agreement between the simulation data and actual scans of phantoms, providing support for the validity of the simulation algorithms. We conclude that the presented signal modelling approach may provide a framework for image analysis that can improve and expand the quantitative capacity of PET imaging.

Obstruction of urine flow at the level of the pelvo-ureteric junction (UPJO) and subsequent development of hydronephrosis is one of the most common congenital renal malformations. UPJO is associated with development of salt-sensitive hypertension, which is set by the obstructed kidney, and with a stimulated renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) in rodent models. This study aimed at investigating the hypothesis that 1) in pediatric patients with UPJO the RAAS is activated before surgical relief of the obstruction; 2) in rats with UPJO the RAAS activation is reflected by increased abundance of renal aldosterone-stimulated Na transporters; and 3) the injured UPJO kidney allows aberrant filtration of plasminogen, leading to proteolytic activation of the epithelial Na channel γ-subunit (γ-ENaC). Hydronephrosis resulting from UPJO in pediatric patients and rats was associated with increased urinary plasminogen-to-creatinine ratio. In pediatric patients, plasma renin, angiotensin II, urine and plasma aldosterone, and urine soluble prorenin receptor did not differ significantly before or after surgery, or compared with controls. Increased plasmin-to-plasminogen ratio was seen in UPJO rats. Intact γ-ENaC abundance was not changed in UPJO kidney, whereas low-molecular cleavage product abundance increased. The Na-Cl cotransporter displayed significantly lower abundance in the UPJO kidney compared with the nonobstructed contralateral kidney. The Na-K-ATPase α-subunit was unaltered. Treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (8 days, captopril) significantly lowered blood pressure in UPJO rats. It is concluded that the RAAS contributes to hypertension following partial obstruction of urine flow at the pelvo-ureteric junction with potential contribution from proteolytic activation of ENaC.

Background/Purpose The aims of this study were to evaluate bowel and urinary tract function, to identify predictors for dysfunctional outcome and to evaluate health-related quality-of life (QoL) in patients treated for sacrococcygeal teratomas (SCT). Methods Medical records of patients with SCT born between 1985 and 2015 treated at three Swedish pediatric surgical centers were reviewed. Questionnaires regarding urinary tract function, bowel function and QoL were sent to patients and parents. Different QoL instruments were used for the different age groups. Results Totally 85 patients were identified. Four patients died in the neonatal period. Forty-nine patients answered the questionnaires (60%). Median age at follow-up was 8.9 years (range 3.6–28.8). Bowel dysfunction was reported by 36% and urinary tract dysfunction by 46% of the patients. Univariate analysis revealed that urinary tract dysfunction correlated with gestational age (p = 0.018) and immature histology (p = 0.008), and bowel dysfunction correlated with gestational age (p = 0.016) and tumor size (p = 0.042). Low gestational age was an independent predictor for both urinary tract and bowel dysfunction. Good or very good QoL was reported by 56% of children aged 4–7 years, 90% of children aged 8–17 years and 67% of the adults. Conclusion Although a considerable proportion of bowel and urinary tract dysfunction was found, the reported QoL was good in a majority of the patients with SCT. Low gestational age was found to be a predictor for bowel- and urinary tract dysfunction. Level of Evidence Level III.

Hydronephrosis is associated with the development of salt-sensitive hypertension. Studies have suggested that increased sympathetic nerve activity and oxidative stress play important roles in hypertension and the modulation of salt sensitivity. The present study primarily aimed to examine the role of renal sympathetic nerve activity in the development of hypertension in rats with hydronephrosis. In addition, we aimed to investigate if NADPH oxidase (NOX) function could be affected by renal denervation. Partial unilateral ureteral obstruction (PUUO) was created in 3-wk-old rats to induce hydronephrosis. Sham surgery or renal denervation was performed at the same time. Blood pressure was measured during normal, high-, and low-salt diets. The renal excretion pattern, NOX activity, and expression as well as components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system were characterized after treatment with the normal salt diet. On the normal salt diet, rats in the PUUO group had elevated blood pressure compared with control rats (115 ± 3 vs. 87 ± 1 mmHg, P < 0.05) and displayed increased urine production and lower urine osmolality. The blood pressure change in response to salt loading (salt sensitivity) was more pronounced in the PUUO group compared with the control group (15 ± 2 vs. 5 ± 1 mmHg, P < 0.05). Renal denervation in PUUO rats attenuated both hypertension (97 ± 3 mmHg) and salt sensitivity (5 ± 1 mmHg, P < 0.05) and normalized the renal excretion pattern, whereas the degree of renal fibrosis and inflammation was not changed. NOX activity and expression as well as renin and ANG II type 1A receptor expression were increased in the renal cortex from PUUO rats and normalized by denervation. Plasma Na+and K+levels were elevated in PUUO rats and normalized after renal denervation. Finally, denervation in PUUO rats was also associated with reduced NOX expression, superoxide production, and fibrosis in the heart. In conclusion, renal denervation attenuates hypertension and restores the renal excretion pattern, which is associated with reduced renal NOX and components of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. This study emphasizes a link between renal nerves, the development of hypertension, and modulation of NOX function.