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Increasing concerns regarding wireless systems’ security are leading researchers to exploit the physical properties of a medium while designing any secured wireless network. The secrecy performance of a mixed radio frequency-free space optical (RF-FSO) system with a variable gain relaying scheme is investigated in this paper under the attempt of wiretapping by an eavesdropper. We assume that the eavesdropper can intrude the target data from the RF link only. Both the RF links (main and eavesdropper) undergo the $\alpha -\mu $ fading statistics and the FSO link experiences the exponentiated Weibull fading statistics. Exploiting the amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying scheme while considering two detection techniques (i.e. heterodyne detection and intensity modulation/direct detection) with pointing error impairments, the mathematical formulations of the unified probability density function and cumulative distribution function are performed for the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio of the considered dual-hop RF-FSO link. Closed-form analytical expressions for average secrecy capacity, secrecy outage probability, and the probability of non-zero secrecy capacity are derived in terms of Meijer’s $G$ and Fox’s $H$ functions to quantify the system performance. Capitalizing on these expressions, the secrecy performance is further analyzed for various channel parameters of RF links, aperture sizes of the receiver, pointing errors, and atmospheric turbulence severity. The results reveal that aperture averaging can improve the secrecy performance remarkably by suppressing the effects of turbulence. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to justify the accuracy of the proposed model.

In this paper,a polarization-maintaining single-mode rectangular-shaped hollow-core waveguide with four segmented air cladding in the terahertz (THz) regime is presented for detecting various toxic industrial chemicals. A new type of injection moldable cyclic olefin copolymer, commercially named as TOPAS is used as the base fiber material for its high optical transmission and high resistance to other chemicals. The finite element method with a perfectly matched layer as the boundary condition is employed for numerical explorations. The proposed sensor exhibits ultra-high relative sensitivity of 99.73% and ultra-low effective material loss of 0.007 cm−1 at 1.6 THz frequency for Toluene in y polarization. This sensor also evinces a high birefringence of $4.16\times 10^{-3}$ at 1.6 THz frequency. A maximum V parameter of 2.224 has been found at 2.2 THz which ensures the single-mode propagation of light. The sensor shows a very low confinement loss of $3.2\times 10^{-11}$ dB/m and a high numerical aperture of 0.3574 at 1.6 THz frequency for Hydrogen Sulfide. This paper also concentrates on other important design parameters such as bending loss, mode field radius, beam divergence and effective area for serviceability of the sensor in the THz region. This sensor can be a very good candidate for various chemical detection as well as other applications in the terahertz regime.

In Radio Frequency (RF)-Free Space Optical (FSO) mixed links, secrecy capacity (SC) can be improved by exploiting spatial diversity (i.e., antenna diversity) in the RF path. In addition to atmospheric turbulence and point error of the FSO link, antenna correlation in the RF link can significantly deteriorate the secrecy performance. In this paper, a secrecy rate of wiretap channels with a single source, relay, destination, and eavesdropper is analyzed under practical environments with the aforementioned impairments. The RF hop (source-to-relay) and the FSO hop (relay-to-destination) are modeled utilizing arbitrarily correlated Nakagami-$m$ and Málaga ($\mathcal {M}$) distributions, respectively. The correlated signal branches of the RF hop are combined at the relay exploiting equal gain combining reception technique. We assume that the eavesdropper is capable of wiretapping via RF and FSO links separately. We derive novel closed-form expressions for secrecy outage probability (SOP) and strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) considering heterodyne detection (HD) and intensity modulation with direct detection (IM/DD) techniques in order to examine the impact of atmospheric scintillation, pointing error, fading, and correlation on the system's secrecy performance. It is shown that the HD technique exhibits a better performance than an IM/DD technique. In addition, similar to the pointing error and turbulent fading, the correlation imposes a detrimental impact on SC. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulation results are provided for validation of the derived expressions.

Brain is the controlling center of our body. With the advent of time, newer and newer brain diseases are being discovered. Thus, because of the variability of brain diseases, existing diagnosis or detection systems are becoming challenging and are still an open problem for research. Detection of brain diseases at an early stage can make a huge difference in attempting to cure them. In recent years, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is surging through all spheres of science, and no doubt, it is revolutionizing the field of neurology. Application of AI in medical science has made brain disease prediction and detection more accurate and precise. In this study, we present a review on recent machine learning and deep learning approaches in detecting four brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), brain tumor, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease. 147 recent articles on four brain diseases are reviewed considering diverse machine learning and deep learning approaches, modalities, datasets etc. Twenty-two datasets are discussed which are used most frequently in the reviewed articles as a primary source of brain disease data. Moreover, a brief overview of different feature extraction techniques that are used in diagnosing brain diseases is provided. Finally, key findings from the reviewed articles are summarized and a number of major issues related to machine learning/deep learning-based brain disease diagnostic approaches are discussed. Through this study, we aim at finding the most accurate technique for detecting different brain diseases which can be employed for future betterment.

We study the secrecy transmission of uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with single antenna and multi-antenna users in presence of an eavesdropper. Two phases are required for communications during each time frame between the users and the base station in cellular networks. We study the case where an eavesdropper overhears the relay and direct links from the users to the base stations. In terms of the secure performance analysis, we focus on two main metrics including secrecy outage probability (SOP) and strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) with the assumption that the eavesdropper is able to detect the signals. Analytical closed-form expressions for the SOP and SPSC are derived to evaluate the system secure performance achieved by the proposed schemes. Furthermore, the asymptotic analysis is presented to gain further insights. The analytical and numerical results indicate that the proposed schemes can realize better secrecy performance once we improve the channel condition and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the base station. Our results confirms that the secrecy performance gaps exist among the two users since different power allocation factors are assigned to these users.

With the rapid evolution of communication technologies, high-speed optical wireless applications under the water surface as a replacement or complementary to the conventional radio frequency (RF) and acoustic technologies are attracting significant attention from the researchers. Since underwater turbulence (UWT) is an inevitable impediment for a long distance underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) link, mixed RF-UOWC is being considered as a more feasible solution by the research community. This article deals with the secrecy performance of a variable gain relay-based mixed dual-hop RF-UOWC framework under the intercepting attempt of a potential eavesdropper. The RF link undergoes Generalized Gamma (GG) fading distribution, whereas the UOWC link is subjected to mixture Exponential Generalized Gamma (mEGG) distribution. The eavesdropper is capable of wiretapping via a RF link that also experiences the GG fading. The secrecy analysis incorporates the derivations of closed-form expressions for strictly positive secrecy capacity, average secrecy capacity, and exact as well as lower bound of secrecy outage probability in terms of univariate and bivariate Meijer’s $G$ and Fox’s $H$ functions. Based on these expressions, impacts of heterodyne and intensity modulation/direct detection techniques along with weak, moderate, and severe UWT conditions due to air bubbles, temperature, and salinity gradients are quantified. To the best of authors’ knowledge, the proposed model is the first of its kind that addresses the secrecy analysis of a temperature gradient RF-UOWC system along with air bubbles, as opposed to the existing models that considered thermally uniform scenarios only. Finally, the derived expressions are verified via Monte-Carlo simulations.

In this paper, we investigate a secure dual-hop radio frequency-free space optical (RF-FSO) mixed variable gain relaying framework in the presence of a single eavesdropper. The RF and FSO links are modeled with hyper Gamma (HG) and Gamma-Gamma (ΓΓ) fading channels, respectively. We assume that the eavesdropper utilizes another HG fading channel to wiretap the transmitted confidential data from the RF link. Our key concern is to defend this information against passive eavesdropping. We carry out the secrecy measurements by deriving closed-form mathematical expressions of average secrecy capacity (ASC), secure outage probability (SOP), and strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC), all in terms of Meijer's G function. Capitalizing on the derived expressions, we analyze the impacts of atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors on the secrecy capacity and outage performance of the proposed scenario. For gaining more insights, we also analyze the asymptotic outage behaviour for high signal-to-noise ratio. Two detection techniques i.e. heterodyne (HD) and the intensity modulation with direct detection (IM/DD) are taken into consideration and our results demonstrate that HD technique notably outperforms the IM/DD scheme. The supremacy and novelty of the model is demonstrated via utilizing generic properties of the HG fading channel. Finally, we provide a justification of the derived expressions via Monte-Carlo simulations.

Disease diagnosis is the identification of an health issue, disease, disorder, or other condition that a person may have. Disease diagnoses could be sometimes very easy tasks, while others may be a bit trickier. There are large data sets available; however, there is a limitation of tools that can accurately determine the patterns and make predictions. The traditional methods which are used to diagnose a disease are manual and error-prone. Usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive techniques enables auto diagnosis and reduces detection errors compared to exclusive human expertise. In this paper, we have reviewed the current literature for the last 10 years, from January 2009 to December 2019. The study considered eight most frequently used databases, in which a total of 105 articles were found. A detailed analysis of those articles was conducted in order to classify most used AI techniques for medical diagnostic systems. We further discuss various diseases along with corresponding techniques of AI, including Fuzzy Logic, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. This research paper aims to reveal some important insights into current and previous different AI techniques in the medical field used in today's medical research, particularly in heart disease prediction, brain disease, prostate, liver disease, and kidney disease. Finally, the paper also provides some avenues for future research on AI-based diagnostics systems based on a set of open problems and challenges.

Vehicular networks aim to support cooperative warning applications that involve the dissemination of warning messages to reach vehicles in a target area. Due to the high mobility of vehicles, imperative technologies such as software-defined network (SDN) and edge computing (EC) have been proposed for the next-generation vehicular networks. The SDN separates the control plane from data plane entities and executes the control plane software on general purpose hardware. On the other hand, EC aims to reduce the network latency and packet loss rate by pushing the computations to the edge of the network. Nevertheless, the current solutions that integrate SDN and EC could not satisfy the latency requirements for data dissemination of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services. To bridge the gap between the two technologies, the conventional EC is enhanced to multi-access edge computing (MEC) by collocating the edge computing servers with the radio access networks. In order to improve the latency for V2X services, we propose in this paper, an SDN-based multi-access edge computing framework for the vehicular networks (SDMEV). In the proposed solution, two main algorithms are implemented. First, a fuzzy logic-based algorithm is used to select the head vehicle for each evolved node B (eNB) collocated with road-side unit (RSU) for the purpose of grouping vehicles based on their communication interfaces. Afterward, an OpenFlow algorithm is deployed to update flow tables of forwarding devices at forwarding layers. In addition, a case study is presented and evaluated using the object-oriented modular discrete event network (OMNeT++) simulation framework which includes the INET framework-based SDN. Simulation results depict that the data dissemination based-SDN supported by multi-access edge computing over SDMEV can improve the latency requirements for V2X services.

Where traditional genetic algorithms tend to prematurely converge on local optima, adaptive strategies aim to maintain a healthy level of population diversity by introducing randomness to the population. Often times this is done through adjusting control parameters according to diversity measurements. While these approaches introduce diversity, they do not aid in focusing or directing the search effort. Meanwhile, other works in the literature propose creating individuals designed to improve the population's health and quality but their effectiveness is limited outside of general problems. This article proposes novel sequence-wise approach to designing and editing genotypes for ordered problems. A Markov model based similarity guide matrix (MSGM) is used to determine the relationships between gene nodes in order to produce new genotypes that focus on improving fitness and increasing population diversity. The proposed MSGM based approach is implemented in a balanced-evolution genetic algorithm framework in order to investigate its characteristics with encouraging results demonstrating its effectiveness when solving combinatorial ordered optimisation problems.

Targeted genome editing is an advanced technique that enables precise modification of the nucleic acid sequences in a genome. Genome editing is typically performed using tools, such as molecular scissors, to cut a defined location in a specific gene. Genome editing has impacted various fields of biotechnology, such as agriculture; biopharmaceutical production; studies on the structure, regulation, and function of the genome; and the creation of transgenic organisms and cell lines. Although genome editing is used frequently, it has several limitations. Here, we provide an overview of well-studied genome-editing nucleases, including single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides (ssODNs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), and CRISPR-Cas9 RNA-guided nucleases (CRISPR-Cas9). To this end, we describe the progress toward editable nuclease-based therapies and discuss the minimization of off-target mutagenesis. Future prospects of this challenging scientific field are also discussed. Keywords: genome editing, nucleases, DSB, NHEJ, HDR, ZFNs, TALENs, CRISPR-Cas9, ssODNs, off-target mutagenesis

Resistance versus temperature characteristics of superconducting films have been studied for decades, and are still considered an important subject of condensed matter physics. They have recently received increased attention, primarily motivated by electromagnetic metamaterial strategy, which has been used in the implementation of one-dimensional microwave transmission lines with high-temperature superconducting films. In some of the recent works, it has been argued that the physical measurement of these curves is a strenuous and costly process, which becomes tedious when incessantly performed for a wide range of parameters. Contemplating on their significance, in this work, we propose a resistance–temperature curves approximation framework using three different artificial neural networks architectures, and carry out a detailed comparison between the variants in terms of the accuracy they achieve. We demonstrate that the mean-squared error, between the approximated and the physically measured curves, is negligible, which justifies extrapolation of these curves over a wide range of parameters using the proposed framework.

A highly sensitive dual-polarized 'X' oriented quadruple D-shaped open channel photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor for various analyte detection is proposed in this paper. Gold is taken as a plasmonic material for its stability and compatibility. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) and titanium oxide (TiO2) has been used separately as an adhesive layer of gold to elevate the sustainability of the evanescent field. This paper shows a comparative study and inspects the effect of sensing performance between Si3N4 and TiO2 as an adhesive layer of gold. Numerical investigations have been followed up using the finite element method (FEM). For practical feasibility, analyte and plasmonic materials have been placed at the outer surface of the sensor. After watchful investigation, the maximum wavelength sensitivities of 21,000 nm/RIU (Refractive Index Unit) and 18,000 nm/RIU have been found for the y-polarization when using TiO2 and Si3N4, respectively. The highest amplitude sensitivities are of 914RIU−1 and 625RIU−1 for TiO2 and Si3N4, respectively. Furthermore, minimum wavelength resolutions of 4.76 × 10−6 RIU and 5.55 × 10−6 RIU have been observed in y-polarization for TiO2 and Si3N4, respectively. The sensor evinces a maximum figure of merit (FOM) of 236RIU−1 for TiO2. This sensor has the analyte sensing range of 1.31–1.38RI (Refractive Index) for TiO2 and 1.32–1.39RI for Si3N4. The sensor also delivers low confinement loss for Si3N4 and TiO2, which certifies viability in fabricating the design. Recognizing this sensor’s wavelength sensitivity, amplitude sensitivity, and sensing RI range, it could be a promising candidate for detecting different liquid analytes with excellent accuracy.

Chronic diseases are becoming more widespread. Treatment and monitoring of these diseases require going to hospitals frequently, which increases the burdens of hospitals and patients. Presently, advancements in wearable sensors and communication protocol contribute to enriching the healthcare system in a way that will reshape healthcare services shortly. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is the foremost of these advancements. RPM systems are based on the collection of patient vital signs extracted using invasive and noninvasive techniques, then sending them in real-time to physicians. These data may help physicians in taking the right decision at the right time. The main objective of this paper is to outline research directions on remote patient monitoring, explain the role of AI in building RPM systems, make an overview of the state of the art of RPM, its advantages, its challenges, and its probable future directions. For studying the literature, five databases have been chosen (i.e., science direct, IEEE-Explore, Springer, PubMed, and science.gov). We followed the (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) PRISMA, which is a standard methodology for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. A total of 56 articles are reviewed based on the combination of a set of selected search terms including RPM, data mining, clinical decision support system, electronic health record, cloud computing, internet of things, and wireless body area network. The result of this study approved the effectiveness of RPM in improving healthcare delivery, increase diagnosis speed, and reduce costs. To this end, we also present the chronic disease monitoring system as a case study to provide enhanced solutions for RPMs This research work was partially supported by the Sejong University Research Faculty Program (20212023) SI

Scheduling a sports tournament is a complex optimization problem, which requires a large number of hard constraints to satisfy. Despite the availability of several such constraints in the literature, there remains a gap since most of the new sports events pose their own unique set of requirements, and demand novel constraints. Specifically talking of the strictly time bound events, ensuring fairness between the different teams in terms of their rest days, traveling, and the number of successive games they play, becomes a difficult task to resolve, and demands attention. In this work, we present a similar situation with a recently played sports event, where a suboptimal schedule favored some of the sides more than the others. We introduce various competitive parameters to draw a fairness comparison between the sides and propose a weighting criterion to point out the sides that enjoyed this schedule more than the others. Furthermore, we use root mean squared error between an ideal schedule and the actual ones for each side to determine unfairness in the distribution of rest days across their entire schedules. The latter is crucial, since successively playing a large number of games may lead to sportsmen burnout, which must be prevented., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Its diagnosis and progression detection have been intensively studied. Nevertheless, research studies often have little effect on clinical practice mainly due to the following reasons: (1) Most studies depend mainly on a single modality, especially neuroimaging; (2) diagnosis and progression detection are usually studied separately as two independent problems; and (3) current studies concentrate mainly on optimizing the performance of complex machine learning models, while disregarding their explainability. As a result, physicians struggle to interpret these models, and feel it is hard to trust them. In this paper, we carefully develop an accurate and interpretable AD diagnosis and progression detection model. This model provides physicians with accurate decisions along with a set of explanations for every decision. Specifically, the model integrates 11 modalities of 1048 subjects from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) real-world dataset: 294 cognitively normal, 254 stable mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 232 progressive MCI, and 268 AD. It is actually a two-layer model with random forest (RF) as classifier algorithm. In the first layer, the model carries out a multi-class classification for the early diagnosis of AD patients. In the second layer, the model applies binary classification to detect possible MCI-to-AD progression within three years from a baseline diagnosis. The performance of the model is optimized with key markers selected from a large set of biological and clinical measures. Regarding explainability, we provide, for each layer, global and instance-based explanations of the RF classifier by using the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) feature attribution framework. In addition, we implement 22 explainers based on decision trees and fuzzy rule-based systems to provide complementary justifications for every RF decision in each layer. Furthermore, these explanations are represented in natural language form to help physicians understand the predictions. The designed model achieves a cross-validation accuracy of 93.95% and an F1-score of 93.94% in the first layer, while it achieves a cross-validation accuracy of 87.08% and an F1-Score of 87.09% in the second layer. The resulting system is not only accurate, but also trustworthy, accountable, and medically applicable, thanks to the provided explanations which are broadly consistent with each other and with the AD medical literature. The proposed system can help to enhance the clinical understanding of AD diagnosis and progression processes by providing detailed insights into the effect of different modalities on the disease risk This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea-Grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT)-NRF-2020R1A2B5B02002478). In addition, Dr. Jose M. Alonso is Ramon y Cajal Researcher (RYC-2016-19802), and its research is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (grants RTI2018-099646-B-I00, TIN2017-84796-C2-1-R, TIN2017-90773-REDT, and RED2018-102641-T) and the Galician Ministry of Education, University and Professional Training (grants ED431F 2018/02, ED431C 2018/29, ED431G/08, and ED431G2019/04), with all grants co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/FEDER program) SI

Sleep apnea is a common symptomatic disease affecting nearly 1 billion people around the world. The gold standard approach for determining the severity of sleep apnea is full-night polysomnography conducted in the laboratory, which is very costly and cumbersome. In this work, we propose a novel scalogram-based convolutional neural network (SCNN) to detect obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. Firstly, we use continuous wavelet transform (CWT) to convert ECG signals into conventional scalograms. In parallel, we also apply empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to the signals to find correlated intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and then apply CWT on the IMFs to obtain hybrid scalograms. Finally, we train a lightweight CNN model on these scalograms to extract deep features for OSA detection. Experiments on the benchmark Apnea-ECG dataset demonstrate that our proposed model results in an accuracy of 94.30%, sensitivity 94.30%, specificity 94.51%, and F1-score 95.85% in per-segment classification. Our model also achieves an accuracy of 81.86%, sensitivity 71.62%, specificity 86.05%, and F1-score 69.63% for UCDDB dataset. Furthermore, our model achieves an accuracy of 100.00% in per-recording classification for Apnea-ECG dataset. The experimental results outperform the existing OSA detection approaches using ECG signals.

In this paper, an asymmetric photonic crystal fiber (PCF) working on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has been proposed and demonstrated using the wavelength interrogation method and lower birefringence peak method. The proposed sensor contains a D-shaped analyte channel that can detect unknown analytes within the sensing range of 1.42–1.47 refractive index units (RIU) of the analytes. The structural asymmetry induces orthogonal x and y polarization modes. The numerical investigations with the finite element method (FEM) reveal that the sensor has a maximum wavelength sensitivity of 80,000 nm/RIU with a sensor resolution of 1.25 × 10−6 RIU for the y polarization mode and the maximum figure of merit (FOM) is found to be of 370.4 RIU−1. For the x polarization mode, the sensor exhibits a maximum wavelength sensitivity of 53,000 nm/RIU with a resolution of 1.89 × 10−6 RIU, having a maximum figure of merit (FOM) of 351 RIU−1. These results are found by using the wavelength interrogation method via confinement loss. On the other hand, the lower birefringence peak method-based analysis reveals a maximum wavelength sensitivity of 50,000 nm/RIU with a resolution of 2 × 10−6 RIU. As such, it is highly suitable for organic chemical detections and medical diagnostics. In addition, this paper studies the fabrication tolerance on the sensor performance.

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) offers an infrastructure made of smart medical equipment and software applications for health services. Through the internet, the IoMT is capable of providing remote medical diagnosis and timely health services. The patients can use their smart devices to create, store and share their electronic health records (EHR) with a variety of medical personnel including medical doctors and nurses. However, unless the underlying combination within IoMT is secured, malicious users can intercept, modify and even delete the sensitive EHR data of patients. Patients also lose full control of their EHR since most health services within IoMT are constructed under a centralized platform outsourced in the cloud. Therefore, it is appealing to design a decentralized, auditable and secure EHR system that guarantees absolute access control for the patients while ensuring privacy and security. Using the features of blockchain including decentralization, auditability and immutability, we propose a secure EHR framework which is mainly maintained by the medical centers. In this framework, the patients' EHR data are encrypted and stored in the servers of medical institutions while the corresponding hash values are kept on the blockchain. We make use of security primitives to offer authentication, integrity and confidentiality of EHR data while access control and immutability is guaranteed by the blockchain technology. The security analysis and performance evaluation of the proposed framework confirms its efficiency., 9 pages (CMC Journal, Tech Science Press)

Histopathology refers to the examination by a pathologist of biopsy samples. Histopathology images are captured by a microscope to locate, examine, and classify many diseases, such as different cancer types. They provide a detailed view of different types of diseases and their tissue status. These images are an essential resource with which to define biological compositions or analyze cell and tissue structures. This imaging modality is very important for diagnostic applications. The analysis of histopathology images is a prolific and relevant research area supporting disease diagnosis. In this paper, the challenges of histopathology image analysis are evaluated. An extensive review of conventional and deep learning techniques which have been applied in histological image analyses is presented. This review summarizes many current datasets and highlights important challenges and constraints with recent deep learning techniques, alongside possible future research avenues. Despite the progress made in this research area so far, it is still a significant area of open research because of the variety of imaging techniques and disease-specific characteristics., 26 Pages, 5 figures, 4 tables

Cloud computing has become popular in various application domains based on infrastructure, platform, and software as a service model. Rapid deployment, high scalability, on-demand, and (theoretically) infinite resources have driven the industry towards the wide adoption of cloud computing services. However, the difficulty of cross-provider resource allocation and seamless resource transition is a major concern for such services. Therefore, the segregated cloud market forces its clients to use provider-specific and pre-configured options for their required resources and services. Thus, the overall market, even with the presence of multiple cloud service providers, operates as a direct service from the providers to the clients, and with non-negotiable pricing strategies for the cloud services. In this article, we propose Bepari, a cost-driven model for opaque service platforms for cloud computing. Bepari acts as a negotiation-based approach to deliver composite cross-provider cloud-based services to the end-users. Bepari provides a detailed service-oriented architecture for multiple cloud service providers to provide cross-platform and composite services. Furthermore, Bepari delivers a detailed cost model and comparison between establishing a cloud service vs. an opaque cloud service. Our empirical framework allows a Bepari service provider to analyze the profit model and create a market niche accordingly. Simulation results are provided, which validate the efficiency of a negotiated pricing strategy in terms of maximized resource utilization and profits for cloud service providers and cost reduction for the cloud users.

Advances in the development and increased availability of smart devices ranging from small sensors to complex cloud infrastructures as well as various networking technologies and communication protocols have supported the rapid expansion of Internet of Things deployments. The Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol has been widely accepted and used in the IoT domain to support interactions among heterogeneous IoT devices, in part due to zero configuration implementation which makes it feasible for use in large-scale networks. The popularity and ubiquity of UPnP to support IoT systems necessitate an exploration of security risks associated with the use of the protocol for IoT deployments. In this work, we analyze security vulnerabilities of UPnP-based IoT systems and identify attack opportunities by the adversaries leveraging the vulnerabilities. Finally, we propose prospective solutions to secure UPnP-based IoT systems from adversarial operations.

With the development of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, applying the potential and benefits of IoT technology in the health and environment services is increasing to improve the service quality using sensors and devices. This paper aims to apply GIS-based optimization algorithms for optimizing IoT-based network deployment through the use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and smart connected sensors for environmental and health applications. First, the WSN deployment research studies in health and environment applications are reviewed including fire monitoring, precise agriculture, telemonitoring, smart home, and hospital. Second, the WSN deployment process is modeled to optimize two conflict objectives, coverage and lifetime, by applying Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) routing protocol with minimum total network lengths. Third, the performance of the Bees Algorithm (BA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms are compared for the evaluation of GIS-based WSN deployment in health and environment applications. The algorithms were compared using convergence rate, constancy repeatability, and modeling complexity criteria. The results showed that the PSO algorithm converged to higher values of objective functions gradually while BA found better fitness values and was faster in the first iterations. The levels of stability and repeatability were high with 0.0150 of standard deviation for PSO and 0.0375 for BA. The PSO also had lower complexity than BA. Therefore, the PSO algorithm obtained better performance for IoT-based sensor network deployment.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new virus of viral pneumonia. It can outbreak in the world through person-to-person transmission. Although several medical companies provide cooperative monitoring healthcare systems, these solutions lack offering of the end-to-end management of the disease. The main objective of the proposed framework is to bridge the current gap between current technologies and healthcare systems. The wireless body area network, cloud computing, fog computing, and clinical decision support system are integrated to provide a comprehensive and complete model for disease detection and monitoring. By monitoring a person with COVID-19 in real time, physicians can guide patients with the right decisions. The proposed framework has three main layers (i.e., a patient layer, cloud layer, and hospital layer). In the patient layer, the patient is tracked through a set of wearable sensors and a mobile app. In the cloud layer, a fog network architecture is proposed to solve the issues of storage and data transmission. In the hospital layer, we propose a convolutional neural network-based deep learning model for COVID-19 detection based on patient&rsquo, s X-ray scan images and transfer learning. The proposed model achieved promising results compared to the state-of-the art (i.e., accuracy of 97.95% and specificity of 98.85%). Our framework is a useful application, through which we expect significant effects on COVID-19 proliferation and considerable lowering in healthcare expenses.

The emergence of an array of new wireless networks has led researchers to evaluate the prospect of utilizing the physical properties of the wireless medium in order to design secure systems. In this paper, the physical layer secrecy performance of a mixed radio frequency-free space optical (RF-FSO) system with variable gain relaying scheme is investigated in the presence of an eavesdropper. We assume that the eavesdropper can wiretap the transmitted confidential data from the RF link only. It is further assumed that the main and eavesdropper RF links are modeled as generalized Gamma (GG) fading channel, and the free space optical (FSO) link experiences Malaga turbulence with pointing error impairment. Our primary concern is to protect this confidential information from being wiretapped. Besides pointing error, the atmospheric turbulence and two types of detection techniques (i.e. heterodyne detection and intensity modulation with direct detection) are also taken into consideration. Utilizing amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme, the novel mathematical closed-form expressions for average secrecy capacity, lower bound of secrecy outage probability, and strictly positive secrecy capacity are derived. As both the links (RF and FSO) undergo generalized fading channels, the derived expressions are also general. We present a unification of some existing works utilizing the proposed model to better clarify the novelty of this work. Finally, all the derived expressions are justified via Monte-Carlo simulations.

This article numerically offers and analyses a hollow core circular shaped photonic crystal fiber-based surface plasmon resonance (CH-PCF-SPR) biosensor. The biosensor sensitivity is analyzed with applying a mode solver built finite element method (FEM) incorporating multi-physics software “COMSOL”. A nano film of silver is coated as sensing layer on the external surface for easy sensing and more practical realization. The biosensor unveils the highest wavelength sensitivity valued 21000 nm/RIU and amplitude sensitivity valued 2456 RIU−1, and corresponding wavelength resolution of 4.76 × 10−6 RIU and amplitude resolution of 4.07 × 10−6 RIU, respectively, using wavelength interrogation technique (WIT) and technique of amplitude interrogation (AIT), in detecting effective refractive index range 1.33 RIU and 1.42 RIU. Besides, the consequence of changing structural parameters like – pitch, diameter of air hole, various plasmonic metals and silver (Ag) layer thickness are also resulted in results section. The sensitivity of the offered sensor is analyzed to examine the means of spectral loss depth, resolution and amplitude sensitivity. In arrears to the modest scheme, highly sensitive and resolution nature, the offered design can be precisely applied in detection of bio molecular analytes

Compared to orthogonal multiple access (OMA), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can achieve higher spectral efficiency by exploiting the power domain multiplexing. In this paper, we investigate the performance of NOMA in a two-tier heterogeneous network (HetNet) with non-uniform small cell deployment, where critical performance metrics like coverage probability and achievable rate are analyzed. First, a NOMA-based HetNet model is established, where users are paired based on the proposed user pairing scheme. Then the distribution of the order statistics for the distances between different NOMA users and the serving base station (BS) is presented considering the channel qualities from the NOMA users to the BSs. On this basis, we analytically demonstrate the impact of various network parameters on the coverage probability and achievable rate of NOMA users, such as signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio threshold and BS density. Furthermore, an analysis is presented to provide insight into the energy efficiency of the considered system. Finally, extensive simulation and comparisons are conducted, which validate the advantages of NOMA over OMA in the considered HetNet environment.

Traffic congestion is rapidly increasing in urban areas, particularly in mega cities. To date, there exist a few sensor network based systems to address this problem. However, these techniques are not suitable enough in terms of monitoring an entire transportation system and delivering emergency services when needed. These techniques require real-time data and intelligent ways to quickly determine traffic activity from useful information. In addition, these existing systems and websites on city transportation and travel rely on rating scores for different factors (e.g., safety, low crime rate, cleanliness, etc.). These rating scores are not efficient enough to deliver precise information, whereas reviews or tweets are significant, because they help travelers and transportation administrators to know about each aspect of the city. However, it is difficult for travelers to read, and for transportation systems to process, all reviews and tweets to obtain expressive sentiments regarding the needs of the city. The optimum solution for this kind of problem is analyzing the information available on social network platforms and performing sentiment analysis. On the other hand, crisp ontology-based frameworks cannot extract blurred information from tweets and reviews; therefore, they produce inadequate results. In this regard, this paper proposes fuzzy ontology-based sentiment analysis and semantic web rule language (SWRL) rule-based decision-making to monitor transportation activities (accidents, vehicles, street conditions, traffic volume, etc.) and to make a city-feature polarity map for travelers. This system retrieves reviews and tweets related to city features and transportation activities. The feature opinions are extracted from these retrieved data, and then fuzzy ontology is used to determine the transportation and city-feature polarity. A fuzzy ontology and an intelligent system prototype are developed by using Protege web ontology language (OWL) and Java, respectively. The experimental results show satisfactory improvement in tweet and review analysis and opinion mining.

Static sink-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs) suffer from an energy-hole problem. This incurs as the rate of energy consumption on sensor nodes around sinks and on critical paths is considerably faster. State-of-the-art en-routing filtering schemes save energy by countering false report injection attacks. In addition to their unique limitations, these schemes generally do not examine energy awareness in underlying routing. Mostly, these security methods are based on a fixed filtering capacity, unable to respond to changes in attack intensity. Therefore, these limitations cause network partition(s), exhibiting adverse effects on network lifetime. Extending network lifetime while preserving energy and security thus becomes an interesting challenge. In this article, we address the aforesaid shortcomings with the proposed adaptive en-route filtering (AEF) scheme. In energy-aware routing, the fitness function, which is used to select forwarding nodes, considers residual energy and other factors as opposed to distance only. In pre-deterministic key distribution, keys are distributed based on the consideration of having paths with a different number of verification nodes. This, consequently, permits us to have multiple paths with different security levels that can be exploited to counter different attack intensities. Taken together, the integration of the special fitness function with the new key distribution approach enables the AEF to adapt the underlying dynamic network conditions. The simulation experiments under different settings show significant improvements in network lifetime.

In the age of the Internet of Things, connected devices are changing the delivery system in the healthcare communication environment. With the integration of IoT in healthcare, there is a huge potential for improvement of the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care in addition to promising technological, economical, and social prospects. Nevertheless, this integration comes with security risks such as data breach that might be caused by credential-stealing malware. In addition, the patient valuable data can be disclosed when the perspective devices are compromised since they are connected to the internet. Hence, security has become an essential part of today&rsquo, s computing world regarding the ubiquitous nature of the IoT entities in general and IoT-based healthcare in particular. In this paper, research on the algorithm for anonymizing sensitive information about health data set exchanged in the IoT environment using a wireless communication system has been presented. To preserve the security and privacy, during the data session from the users interacting online, the algorithm defines records that cannot be revealed by providing protection to user&rsquo, s privacy. Moreover, the proposed algorithm includes a secure encryption process that enables health data anonymity. Furthermore, we have provided an analysis using mathematical functions to valid the algorithm&rsquo, s anonymity function. The results show that the anonymization algorithm guarantees safety features for the considered IoT system applied in context of the healthcare communication systems.

Early diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) is critical to prevent its serious complications. An ensemble of classifiers is an effective way to enhance classification performance, which can be used to diagnose complex diseases, such as DM. This paper proposes an ensemble framework to diagnose DM by optimally employing multiple classifiers based on bagging and random subspace techniques. The proposed framework combines seven of the most suitable and heterogeneous data mining techniques, each with a separate set of suitable features. These techniques are k-nearest neighbors, na&iuml, ve Bayes, decision tree, support vector machine, fuzzy decision tree, artificial neural network, and logistic regression. The framework is designed accurately by selecting, for every sub-dataset, the most suitable feature set and the most accurate classifier. It was evaluated using a real dataset collected from electronic health records of Mansura University Hospitals (Mansura, Egypt). The resulting framework achieved 90% of accuracy, 90.2% of recall = 90.2%, and 94.9% of precision. We evaluated and compared the proposed framework with many other classification algorithms. An analysis of the results indicated that the proposed ensemble framework significantly outperforms all other classifiers. It is a successful step towards constructing a personalized decision support system, which could help physicians in daily clinical practice.

&lt, italic&gt, C1QBP&lt, /italic&gt, (Complement Component 1 Q Subcomponent-Binding Protein), a multicompartmental protein, participates in various cellular processes, including mRNA splicing, ribosome biogenesis, protein synthesis in mitochondria, apoptosis, transcriptional regulation, and infection processes of viruses. The correlation of &lt, expression with patient survival and molecular function of &lt, in relation to cancer progression has not been comprehensively studied. Therefore, we sought to systematically investigate the expression of &lt, to evaluate the change of &lt, expression and the relationship with patient survival and affected pathways in breast, lung, colon, and bladder cancers as well as lymphoma. Relative expression levels of &lt, were analyzed using the Oncomine, Gene Expression Across Normal and Tumor Tissue (GENT), and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. Mutations and copy number alterations in &lt, were also analyzed using cBioPortal, and subsequently, the relationship between &lt, expression and survival probability of cancer patients was explored using the PrognoScan database and the R2: Kaplan Meier Scanner. Additionally, the relative expression of &lt, in other cancers, and correlation of &lt, expression with patient survival were investigated. Gene ontology and pathway analysis of commonly differentially coexpressed genes with &lt, in breast, lung, colon, and bladder cancers as well as lymphoma revealed the &lt, correlated pathways in these cancers. This data-driven study demonstrates the correlation of &lt, expression with patient survival and identifies possible &lt, involved pathways, which may serve as targets of a novel therapeutic modality for various human cancers.

Prominin 1 (PROM1) is considered a biomarker for cancer stem cells, although its biological role is unclear. Prominin 2 (PROM2) has also been associated with certain cancers. However, the prognostic value of PROM1 and PROM2 in cancer is controversial. Here, we performed a systematic data analysis to examine whether prominins can function as prognostic markers in human cancers. The expression of prominins was assessed and their prognostic value in human cancers was determined using univariate and multivariate survival analyses, via various online platforms. We selected a group of prominent functional protein partners of prominins by protein-protein interaction analysis. Subsequently, we investigated the relationship between mutations and copy number alterations in prominin genes and various types of cancers. Furthermore, we identified genes that correlated with PROM1 and PROM2 in certain cancers, based on their levels of expression. Gene ontology and pathway analyses were performed to assess the effect of these correlated genes on various cancers. We observed that PROM1 was frequently overexpressed in esophageal, liver, and ovarian cancers and its expression was negatively associated with prognosis, whereas PROM2 overexpression was associated with poor overall survival in lung and ovarian cancers. Based on the varying characteristics of prominins, we conclude that PROM1 and PROM2 expression differentially modulates the clinical outcomes of cancers.

Kidney-type glutaminase (GLS) and liver-type glutaminase (GLS2) are dysregulated in many cancers, making them appealing targets for cancer therapy. However, their use as prognostic biomarkers is controversial and remains an active area of cancer research. Here, we performed a systematic multiomic analysis to determine whether glutaminases function as prognostic biomarkers in human cancers. Glutaminase expression and methylation status were assessed and their prominent functional protein partners and correlated genes were identified using various web-based bioinformatics tools. The cross-cancer relationship of glutaminases with mutations and copy number alterations was also investigated. Gene ontology (GO) and pathway analysis were performed to assess the integrated effect of glutaminases and their correlated genes on various cancers. Subsequently, the prognostic roles of GLS and GLS2 in human cancers were mined using univariate and multivariate survival analyses. GLS was frequently over-expressed in breast, esophagus, head-and-neck, and blood cancers, and was associated with a poor prognosis, whereas GLS2 overexpression implied poor overall survival in colon, blood, ovarian, and thymoma cancers. Both GLS and GLS2 play oncogenic and anti-oncogenic roles depending on the type of cancer. The varying prognostic characteristics of glutaminases suggest that GLS and GLS2 expression differentially modulate the clinical outcomes of cancers.

In this work, a comparative investigation of chaotic flow behavior inside multi-layer crossing channels was numerically carried out to select suitable micromixers. New micromixers were proposed and compared with an efficient passive mixer called a Two-Layer Crossing Channel Micromixer (TLCCM), which was investigated recently. The computational evaluation was a concern to the mixing enhancement and kinematic measurements, such as vorticity, deformation, stretching, and folding rates for various low Reynolds number regimes. The 3D continuity, momentum, and species transport equations were solved by a Fluent ANSYS CFD code. For various cases of fluid regimes (0.1 to 25 values of Reynolds number), the new configuration displayed a mixing enhancement of 40%–60% relative to that obtained in the older TLCCM in terms of kinematic measurement, which was studied recently. The results revealed that all proposed micromixers have a strong secondary flow, which significantly enhances the fluid kinematic performances at low Reynolds numbers. The visualization of mass fraction and path-lines presents that the TLCCM configuration is inefficient at low Reynolds numbers, while the new designs exhibit rapid mixing with lower pressure losses. Thus, it can be used to enhance the homogenization in several microfluidic systems.

In this letter, we investigate the statistical characterization of a 3-D propagation model for multiple-input–multiple-output vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications inside a rectangular tunnel under nonisotropic scattering conditions. The proposed model captures the spatial, temporal, and the frequency statistical distributions of the received multipath signals. A generalized analytical expression is derived for the space–time–frequency correlation function and thoroughly investigated. We analyze the impact of various model parameters, including antenna element spacing and tunnel width, on the V2V channel statistics.

The recent technology of human voice capture and interpretation has spawned the social robot to convey information and to provide recommendations. This technology helps people obtain information about a particular topic after giving an oral query to a humanoid robot. However, most of the search engines are keyword-matching mechanism-based, and the existing full-text query search engines are inadequate at retrieving relevant information from various oral queries. With only predefined words and sentence-based recommendations, a social robot may not suggest the correct items, if items retrieved along with the information are not predefined. In addition, the available conventional ontology-based systems cannot extract precise data from webpages to show the correct results. In this regard, we propose a merged ontology and support vector machine (SVM)-based information extraction and recommendation system. In the proposed system, when a humanoid robot receives an oral query from a disabled user, the oral query changes into a full-text query, the system mines the full-text query to extract the disabled user's needs, and then converts the query into the correct format for a search engine. The proposed system downloads a collection of information about items (city features, diabetes drugs, and hotel features). The SVM identifies the relevant information on the item and removes anything irrelevant. Merged ontology-based sentiment analysis is then employed to find the polarity of the item for recommendation. The system suggests items with a positive polarity term to the disabled user. The intelligent model and merged ontology were designed by employing Java and Protégé Web Ontology Language 2 software, respectively. Experimentation results show that the proposed system is highly productive when analyzing retrieved information, and provides accurate recommendations.