Search

The use of Internet of Things devices has lately increased significantly, leading to the management of a diverse set of nodes and a vast number of data. Most Internet of Things nodes have limited resources and are vulnerable to a variety of threats and failures. Therefore, numerous novel techniques have been conducted to secure resource-constrained devices such as access control. In this work, we proposed an access control mechanism by using the user log files when they interact with their Internet of Things devices. Where it is possible to define and enforce access control restrictions and follow logs through log files to monitor the user accessing behaviors. This mechanism can be applied as an extra security layer along with any traditional user authentication access control to have the effective and accurate access control to prevent intrusion reveal information in the Internet of Things devices. To do this, we developed three Internet of Things applications on mobile, table, and website pages with different functionalities and goals to store the user log file features. We collected a large-scale date-set from over a thousand participants. Three machine learning algorithms: J48, Part, and Naive Bayes are applied and compared to predict the legitimate users. Several experiments were performed with significant results.

BACKGROUND The incidence of pneumonia and subsequent outcomes has not been compared in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).OBJECTIVES This study aimed to examine the rate and impact of pneumonia in the PARADIGM-HF (Prospective Comparison of Angiotensin Receptor-Neprilysin Inhibitor With Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitor to Determine Impact on Global Mortality and Morbidity in Heart Failure) and PARAGON-HF (Prospective Comparison of ARNI with ARB Global Outcomes in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction) trials.METHODS The authors analyzed the incidence of investigator-reported pneumonia and the rates of HF hospitalization, cardiovascular death, and all-cause death before and after the occurrence of pneumonia, and estimated risk after the first occurrence of pneumonia in unadjusted and adjusted analyses (the latter including N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide).RESULTS In PARADIGM-HF, 528 patients (6.3%) developed pneumonia after randomization, giving an incidence rate of 29 (95% CI: 27 to 32) per 1,000 patient-years. In PARAGON-HF, 510 patients (10.6%) developed pneumonia, giving an incidence rate of 39 (95% CI: 36 to 42) per 1,000 patient-years. The subsequent risk of all trial outcomes was elevated after the occurrence of pneumonia. In PARADIGM-HF, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for the risk of death from any cause was 4.34 (95% CI: 3.73 to 5.05). The corresponding adjusted HR in PARAGON-HF was 3.76 (95% CI: 3.09 to 4.58).CONCLUSIONS The incidence of pneumonia was high in patients with HF, especially HFpEF, at around 3 times the expected rate. A first episode of pneumonia was associated with 4-fold higher mortality. (Prospective Comparison of Angiotensin Receptor-Neprilysin Inhibitor With Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor to Determine Impact on Global Mortality and Morbidity in Heart Failure [PARADIGM-HF], NCT01035255; Prospective Comparison of ARNI [Angiotensin Receptor-Neprilysin Inhibitor] With ARB [Angiotensin Receptor Blocker] Global Outcomes in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction [PARAGON-HF], NCT01920711) (J Am Coll Cardiol 2021;77:1961-73) (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier on behalf of the American College of Cardiology Foundation. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The internet has become one of the main sources of news spread as it unleashed the information dissemination space, where the news websites express opinions on entities while also reporting on recent or unusual security risks. Recently, many research studies have focused on sentimental reflection on the views and impressions of people utilising natural language processing and analytical linguistics. Therefore, we have collected corpus from popular Arabic websites that publish articles related to recent security issues, and we provide light weight preprocessing techniques where data is term matrix is transformed. We also present an intensive lexical‐driven data analysis with visualised data views, as our topic modelling technique can effectively extract significant topics from all the collected text from different websites. Our experiments validate the k‐means clustering algorithm with and without the latent Dirichlet allocation topic modelling method, and we adopted various validation techniques to measure the topic clustering internally and externally. As shown in the experiments' results, our proposed combined method has a high round index rate of 87.2%, with a large number of topics and clusters.

The fifth-generation (5G) wireless network is commercialized. The need to integrate massive devices in 5G and wireless sensor networks (WSN) to provide several convenient services for network users becomes imperative. However, there are growing concerns that 5G-WSNs pose new security threats to sensitive user information. User authentication and key agreement have been provided for secure end-to-end communication. However, stricter security techniques are required as billions of massive devices are being networked to collect and process complex user data in real-time. Therefore, anonymous authentication and authorization are highly coveted for privacy preservation and prevention of unlawful exploitation of user data. However, guaranteeing data integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation require special-purpose identity-based signature techniques that are quite difficult to design in practice. In order to address this problem, this paper proposes a lightweight, provably secure identity-based online/offline signature technique (IBOOST) and its extension for massive devices in 5G-WSNs using fractional chaotic maps. The IBOOST scheme achieves multi-time use of offline storage at a lower processing time. Therefore, the signer can reuse the offline pre-stored information in a polynomial time. This makes our IBOOST superior to the existing online/offline signature techniques that allow only a single signature. Additionally, the new technique enables the pre-registration process with a secret key, and no secret key is required in the offline stage. Also, the proposed IBOOST proves to be secure in the random oracle unforgeability under the chosen message attack (UF-IBS-CMA). Finally, the IBOOST and its enhanced version (A-IBOOST) give the lowest computational costs compared to several contending techniques. Therefore, the proposed IBOOST shows superior security and performance with better computational overhead than the preliminary techniques.

In this paper, we show how to approximate the solution to the generalized time-fractional Huxley-Burgers’ equation by a numerical method based on the cubic B-spline collocation method and the mean value theorem for integrals. We use the mean value theorem for integrals to replace the time-fractional derivative with a suitable approximation. The approximate solution is constructed by the cubic B-spline. The stability of the proposed method is discussed by applying the von Neumann technique. The proposed method is shown to be conditionally stable. Several numerical examples are introduced to show the efficiency and accuracy of the method.

Background/Aim: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is one of the most common compressive, canalicular neuropathies of the upper extremities, causing hand pain and impaired function. This clinical study was designed to compare the intraoperative median nerve distal motor latency (DML) versus the distal sensory latency (DSL) and sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) during surgical treatment of CTS. Patients and Methods: A total number of 36 wrists in 30 patients with CTS diagnosed by preoperative median MNCS who underwent surgical intervention for median nerve release. Intraoperative measurements of motor distal latency (DML) and proximal latency, amplitude, and conduction velocity and distal sensory latency (DSL), amplitude, and conduction velocity of both the median and ulnar nerves before and after division of the flexor retinaculum (FR). Results: A significant decrease of the intraoperative median nerve distal motor latency (DML) after release (8.89 ± 0.93) in comparison with the preoperative median nerve DML (6.24 ± 1.06) with (p < 0.001*). But intraoperative distal sensory latency (DSL) and sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCVM) show non-significant decrease (p = 0.161). Conclusion: Intraoperative monitoring of median nerve show rapidly improve Intraoperative motor nerve conduction than the sensory nerve conduction after release the FR during carpal tunnel surgery.

In this article, we present an encryption technique that can encrypt any digital data. The proposed scheme basically depends on a substitution-permutation network. Two separate bijective maps are used in the proposed algorithm. Firstly, the substitution boxes are used to perform the substitution process. This technique uses elliptic curves (ECs) to create several substitution boxes with good cryptographic properties. The generated substitution boxes are utilized to replace the arrange data that produces the most uncertainty in the plain image data. Further, we used the permutation process to generate strong randomness in the proposed technique. For the evaluation of the stability of the proposed algorithm; nonlinearity, linear approximation probability, bit independence criterion, strict avalanche criterion and differential approximation probability were performed on the substitution boxes. Differential attacks (Number of Changing Pixel Rate (NPCR), Uniform Average Change Intensity (UACI)) and statistical tests (Entropy, Correlation) were performed on the encrypted images to check their resistance against different attacks. The execution and image analysis reveals that the proposed scheme attains good encryption results while requiring minimal computing ability and has efficient potential in real-time image encryption applications.

Many encryption algorithms are designed to decrease the probability of cyberattacks by assuring data security as well as system and participant authentication. However, in the development of computer resources cryptanalytical techniques have been developed and performed competitively in information security with good results. In this paper, we reported security flaws in the recently offered encryption technique based on a chaotic map for Internet of Health Things (IoHT) security. The scheme was based on a new chaotic map, modified Mandelbrot set, and conditional shift algorithm asserting the encryption algorithm is secure. We have performed some cryptographic attacks to retrieve the key from the understudy cryptosystem. The key was retrieved in little computation by using a chosen-plaintext attack and one known plaintext ciphertext pair. The minimum execution time of performed attacks indicates the vulnerability of the diffusion-based encryption algorithm. To enhance the security of the understudy cryptographic algorithm, we have also suggested certain improvements.

In this approximation study, a nonlinear singular periodic model in nuclear physics is solved by using the Hermite wavelets (HW) technique coupled with a numerical iteration technique such as the Newton Raphson (NR) one for solving the resulting nonlinear system. The stimulation of offering this numerical work comes from the aim of introducing a consistent framework that has as effective structures as Hermite wavelets. Two numerical examples of the singular periodic model in nuclear physics have been investigated to observe the robustness, proficiency, and stability of the designed scheme. The proposed outcomes of the HW technique are compared with available numerical solutions that established fitness of the designed procedure through performance evaluated on a multiple execution.

Fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI) provides a practical and feasible option for commercial and stud breeders to implement AI into their herds, as 100% of the herd can be inseminated at a predetermined time. FTAI can suit many herds, whether they are inseminating small numbers or the whole herd. We investigated the effects of sire and inseminator on pregnancy and birth outcomes following FTAI of Angus cows. Three Angus sires; namely GAR Quantum 7AN560, Square B True North 8052, and Tehama Tahoe B767, and two inseminators (1 and 2) were evaluated for differences in pregnancy outcomes and birth rates from 24 inseminations. Angus cows (N = 24) were synchronized with CIDR plus GnRH injection. After 7 days, CIDR was removed and each cow received 25 mg PGF2α. AI was conducted within 72 h from PGF2α injection. Cows were randomly assigned for AI between inseminators (12 cows inseminated by inseminator 1 and 12 cows by inseminator 2) and sires (6, 8, and 10 cows were inseminated by GAR Quantum, Tehama Taho, and True North semen, respectively. Pregnancy was diagnosed at 4-5 months after AI by transrectal ultrasonography. Percentage of re-cycling cows 21 days after AI was 45.8% (11/24). Pregnancy rate was 54.2% (13/24). Pregnancy rate was higher (P

Infertility is a major cause of economic losses in livestock production systems. Parasitic infections are a significant cause of infertility in small ruminants. Sericea lespedeza (SL; Lespedeza cuneata) is a potent anthelmintic in sheep and goats. Positive impacts of lespedeza on male fertility have been reported in rats and rabbits; however, no studies have been conducted on goats. Here, we investigated the effects of feeding male goats with SL or annual lespedeza (AL; Kummerowia stiulacea) on their semen quality and fertility. Forty-nine mature intact Spanish bucks were randomly assigned into three groups and fed diets of 60% hay and 40% concentrate in an 8-week pen study. The treatment hays were SL (n=16), AL (n=17), and bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) as a control (n=16). At the end of the trial, scrotum circumferences (SC) were measured and the animals were transported to a processing facility for slaughtering. Testicles and epididymides were collected after slaughter for measuring their weights and lengths. Epididymal spermatozoa were retrieved and evaluated for their motility, concentration, viability, abnormalities, and membrane integrities. Sections from testicles and epididymides were also prepared for histopathological examination. Results showed that SC was higher (P≤ 0.05) in SL than AL groups. Testicular and epididymal weights were comparable (P > 0.05) among the three groups. Sperm motility, concentration, viability, and membrane integrities were higher (P≤ 0.05) in SL compared with the AL and control groups. Sperm abnormalities were higher (P≤ 0.05) in control and AL groups than in the SL group. Histopathological examination revealed mild focally extensive seminiferous tubular degeneration and necrosis in AL group. These results suggest that feeding of male goats on SL enhances their sperm quality and fertility parameters.

Goats have the ability for genetic improvement. Artificial insemination (AI) is a significant technique used to increase genetic gain. Low fertility in goats with AI was attributed to semen quality, which can be affected by cooling/freezing procedures. Cooling of spermatozoa causes reduction in viability, and loss of fertility, mainly because of oxidative stress. L-carnitine (LC) is important for fatty acid metabolism and acts as antioxidant. Many studies have reported positive impact of LC on quality of cooled spermatozoa in different species; however, no research has been done on goats. Here, we investigated the impacts of dietary supplementation of LC on the quality of cooled goat semen. Six mature Alpine bucks were allocated into two groups; control (three bucks were fed a regular diet without LC supplementation), and treatment (three bucks were fed the normal diet plus 0.022 g/kg of BW, LC). Bucks were fed their respective diet for sixty days from January to March (non-breeding season). Semen was collected once/week and evaluated for color, consistency, volume and sperm concentrations. Diluted semen was then stored at 4 °C for 72 h. Sperm motility, viability, and membrane integrity were assessed at 0, 24, 48, and 72 h post-cooling. Results showed that colors of samples collected from the two groups were white to yellow, consistency ranged from watery to creamy, and sperm concentrations ranged from 8.1 to 12.2 x 109 sperm/ml. Sperm motility, viability and membrane integrity reduced (P≤ 0.05) in a time dependent manner in both groups. At 72 h, motility decreased by one-half as compared with 0 h (48.9% vs. 91.4% and 32.5% vs. 80.8%, in LC and control groups, respectively). In conclusion, under our experimental conditions, goat spermatozoa can be stored at 4°C for 72 h without severe loss in their quality. LC treatment has less impact on the quality of cooled goat semen.

This article presents an efficient crypto processor architecture for point multiplication acceleration of side-channel secured Binary Huff Curves (BHC) on FPGA (field-programmable gate array) over GF(2233). We have implemented six finite field polynomial multiplication architectures, i.e., (1) schoolbook, (2) hybrid Karatsuba, (3) 2-way-karatsuba, (4) 3-way-toom-cook, (5) 4-way-toom-cook and (6) digit-parallel-least-significant. For performance evaluation, each implemented polynomial multiplier is integrated with the proposed BHC architecture. Verilog HDL is used for the implementation of all the polynomial multipliers. Moreover, the Xilinx ISE design suite tool is employed as an underlying simulation platform. The implementation results are presented on Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA devices. The achieved results show that the integration of a hybrid Karatsuba multiplier with the proposed BHC architecture results in lower hardware resources. Similarly, the use of a least-significant-digit-parallel multiplier in the proposed design results in high-speed (in terms of both clock frequency and latency). Consequently, the proposed BHC architecture, integrated with a least-significant-digit-parallel multiplier, is 1.42 times faster and utilizes 1.80 times lower FPGA slices when compared to the most recent BHC accelerator architectures.

Aim:\ud There is an association between heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and insulin resistance, but less is known about the diabetic continuum, and in particular about pre-diabetes, in HFpEF. We examined characteristics and outcomes of participants with diabetes or pre-diabetes in PARAGON-HF.\ud \ud Methods and results:\ud Patients aged ≥50 years with left ventricular ejection fraction ≥45%, structural heart disease and elevated N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were eligible. Patients were classified according to glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c): (i) normal HbA1c

This work introduces a computational method for solving the linear two-dimensional fuzzy Fredholm integral equation of the second form (2D-FFIE-2) based on triangular basis functions. We have used the parametric form of fuzzy functions and transformed a 2D-FFIE-2 with three variables in crisp case to a linear Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. First, a method based on the use of two m-sets of orthogonal functions of triangular form is implemented on the integral equation under study to be changed to coupled algebraic equation system. In order to solve these two schemes, a finite iterative algorithm is then applied to evaluate the coefficients that provided the approximate solution of the integral problems. Three examples are given to clarify the efficiency and accuracy of the method. The obtained numerical results are compared with other direct and exact solutions.

International audience; Background: Myocardial fibrosis may contribute to the pathophysiology of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Given the biochemical targets of sacubitril/valsartan, this study hypothesized that circulating biomarkers reflecting the mechanisms that determine extracellular matrix homeostasis are altered by sacubitril/valsartan compared with valsartan alone.Objectives: This study investigated the effects of sacubitril/valsartan on biomarkers of extracellular matrix homeostasis and the association between biomarkers and the primary endpoint (total heart failure hospitalizations and cardiovascular death).Methods: N-terminal propeptide of collagen I and III, tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 1, carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of collagen type I, and soluble ST2 were measured at baseline (n = 1,135) and 16 (n = 1,113) and 48 weeks (n = 1,016) after randomization. The effects of sacubitril/valsartan on these biomarkers were compared with those of valsartan alone. Baseline biomarker values and changes from baseline to 16 weeks were related to primary endpoint.Results: At baseline, all 5 biomarkers were higher than published referent control values. Sixteen weeks after randomization, sacubitril/valsartan decreased tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 1 by 8% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6% to 10%; p < 0.001), soluble ST2 by 4% (95% CI: 1% to 7%; p = 0.002), and N-terminal propeptide of collagen III by 3% (95% CI: 0% to 6%; p = 0.04) and increased carboxyl-terminal telopeptide of collagen type I by 4% (95% CI: 1% to 8%; p = 0.02) compared with valsartan alone, consistently in men and women and patients with left ventricular ejection fraction above or below the median of 57%. Higher levels of tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase 1 and soluble ST2 at baseline and increases in these markers at 16 weeks were associated with higher primary endpoint event rates.Conclusions: Biomarkers reflecting extracellular matrix homeostasis are elevated in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, favorably altered by sacubitril/valsartan, and have important prognostic value. (Prospective Comparison of ARNI With ARB Global Outcomes in HF With Preserved Ejection Fraction [PARAGON-HF]; NCT01920711).

The present investigation used Galleria mellonella larvae as an infection model to describe the virulence of Escherichia coli, the most frequent causes of several common bacterial infections in humans and animals. Some hemolymph physical properties such as hemolymph volume - and its relation to body water content, hemolymph density, and pH, along with a quantitative estimation of hemolymph proteins, lipids and carbohydrates were recorded in G. mellonella larvae at different time intervals post-injection with a sub-lethal dose (LD20) of E. coli into the larval hemocoel.A decrease in fresh body weight and body water content with an increase in the hemolymph volume was observed at all time intervals post-larval treatment. This may be due to the loss of tissue water and gained it into the hemolymph. At the same time, bacterial injection decreased the hemolymph density and pH immediately following injection, while the viscosity and acidity of the hemolymph restored its original level with time. The bacterial injection also recorded an obvious decrease in the hemolymph proteins and lipids of the treated larvae at all time intervals post-treatment. This may be due to their elimination and/or their involvement in immune defence reactions or may be due to the intensive consumption and depletion of nutrition during infection. On the contrary, the levels of hemolymph carbohydrates increased at all-time intervals post bacterial injection into larvae. This increase may be due to the release of stored sugars (treehouse) which is responded strikingly due to bacterial infection causing an increase in the level of glucose and glycogen in the hemolymph. These results may lead to a better understanding of the regulatory events and the physiology of infected insects.

The performance of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors has great dependence on its plasmonic material’s frequency response, which is described by the complex dielectric function. Through history, researchers developed and enhanced mathematical models to accurately describe the material dielectric function. Although many papers compared the accuracy of different dielectric function models and stated its limitations, none of it addressed the effect of dielectric function model on the SPR sensor’s characteristics. In this paper, we investigated the performance of the three most used dielectric function models (Drude, Lorentz-Drude, and Brendel-Bormann) and their effect on the theoretically obtained sensor parameters when used in a gold SPR sensor’s model and validated it with the experimentally measured dielectric function. The result showed that using less accurate dielectric function’s model has a drastic effect on the theoretically obtained sensor’s parameters. Among the three models, the widely used Drude model was not the most accurate; alternatively, Brendel-Bormann model was the most accurate.