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Increasing the location accuracy of the objects in the Indoor Positioning System (IPS) has grasped great attention lately. With the recent developments in the fields of smartphones and mobile beacons, the accuracy of the IPS has achieved accuracy with less than a meter of accuracy. In this paper, we proposed and developed a Filtered RSSI and Beacon Weight Approach (FRBW) based on improved Received Signal Strength Indicator using Kalman filter. The developed algorithm takes the distance and the smoothed RSSI values between beacon nodes into consideration. We employ Kalman filtering on the RSSI measurements of the Beacon signals before applying FRBW algorithm. The developed FRBW algorithm was applied and validated in indoor environment using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and the experimental results achieves accuracy of a few centimeters localization using cost-effective and easy to deploy beacons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is a major fungal disease that contributes to severe economic losses for wheat and barley production in Canada and other parts of the world. Rapid developments in molecular biology over the past three decades have improved the ability to devise predictive management tools to combat the effects of the disease. Important aspects of Fusarium species in terms of the epidemiology associated with FHB in wheat and barley have been reported. The role of mycotoxin production in the epidemiology of the disease is beginning to receive much needed research attention. Evolutionary factors and the use of fungicides have resulted in more virulent forms of the FHB pathogens. Advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, including whole genome sequencing (WGS), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), genotyping by sequencing (GBS) and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) have facilitated the selection of resistant-breeding lines through marker-assisted selection. Many quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with moderate disease resistance have been identified in wheat and barley. Changes in weather conditions play an important role in FHB epidemics and dissemination, thus a systematic and long-term research approach is needed to provide effective forecasting and risk assessment models. This review discusses the history and epidemiology of FHB pathogens in wheat and barley at the global level, as well as potential plant defence mechanisms, the recent progress made in resistance breeding, and modern tools utilized in disease prediction. It also provides future directions for improving the management of the disease with these two important cereals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) are widely used low-power standard technologies developed for short-range communications in the internet-of-things. In many applications, BLE and TSCH networks may be deployed in the vicinity of one another, which may lead to Cross Technology Interference (CTI) influencing each other’s performance. Both technologies utilize channel hopping to alleviate the impact of external interferences. However, having a model to quantitatively estimate the performance of coexisting TSCH and BLE networks and analyze the role of networks’ configuration settings is still an open problem. To address this, we provide a probabilistic analysis of collision-free communication of coexisting BLE and TSCH networks. Moreover, a fast coexistence simulation model is developed that computes the ratio of collision-free transmissions. This model is used to investigate how the performance of the coexisting networks may deviate from the results of the probabilistic analysis. It gives the designers a proper estimation of the worst case performance degradation due to such coexistence. It is shown that severity of the impact of coexisting BLE-TSCH networks on one another depends on the setup configurations and the relative timing of the two networks. The results show that these two technologies can coexist well with collision-free ratios of more than 92.58% and 96.29% in the tested configurations for TSCH and BLE, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IoT network is used to provide an object with connectivity to the Internet to allow the feedback of information. The IoT has the ambition to make objects interact with each other and with people. It promises to be the engine of great transformations in the lives of individuals by democratizing new uses and services in the mobility sector. This is why it is compared to the internet of the future. The global size of the IoT, the huge number of Things in the IoT, the changing topology of the IoT, and the resource constraints make routing in the IoT difficult. Routing is a necessary process in the Internet of Things because it enables the interchange of data between Things by quickly guiding and reliably delivering data through the network from its origins to its destinations. The Internet of Things is enabled by key pillars: radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) (IoT), NFC (Near Field Communication), BLE (Bluetooth Low-Energy technology), LoRa and Sigfox. This paper examines these different technologies as well as the barriers and challenges that must be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stem rust is a major disease on barley, oat, and wheat crops worldwide. The primary means of control is by host resistance genes that are incorporated into commercial varieties and have been effective against most races of Puccinia graminis Pers., the causal pathogen. Since this pathogen continually mutates, analyzing the population virulence structure is crucial to detect new races with increased virulence. Stem rust samples were collected from 2015 to 2019 from the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan to find the prevalence of stem rust in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), oat (Avena sativa L.), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) fields and the virulence dynamics in the two pathogen populations. Stem rust was absent in cultivated wheat and at trace (<1%) levels of incidence in barley and oat fields in all years. While the dominant races of P. graminis f. sp. tritici were MCCDC (54.5%) and TPMKC (27.3%) in 2015, and TMRTF (29.2%) in 2016, race QFCSC was dominant in 2017 (52.0%), 2018 (88.4%), and 2019 (81.3%). The dominant race of P. graminis f. sp. avenae was TJS from 2015 to 2018. Race TJS declined in frequency across the years, from 89.5% (2015) to 73.7% (2016), 42.6% (2017), 49.1% (2018), and only 14.3% in 2019. The dominant races in 2019 were SGB (51.7%) and TGN (19.6%). One new race (TJQ) of P. graminis f. sp. avenae was detected in 2016 at one location near Emerson, Manitoba, which may have arisen from a single-step mutation to avirulence to Pg15 from race TJS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root rot is an important disease of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) on the Canadian Prairies. The composition and alternative crop hosts of fungal and oomycete communities colonizing pea residues from Alberta and Manitoba were studied in field trials over two years. Standing pea residues were sampled from diseased and asymptomatic patches of 17 commercial fields in 2013 and 2014 after harvest and again in early spring the following year prior to seeding. The pea residue was ground to a powder and mixed with sterile Cornell potting mix. Plants of pea, wheat, and canola were grown in this mixture under controlled conditions. The root rot severity on each plant was evaluated and sections from diseased roots were plated on agar medium. Fungal and oomycete communities isolated from symptomatic roots were identified based on culture morphology and PCR analysis. About 3000 fungal isolates, belonging to some 50 species, were identified. Canola was less susceptible to infection than pea or wheat. Fusarium avenaceum (Fr.) Sacc. was the most abundant species infecting the three hosts; F. culmorum (Wm.G.Sm.) Sacc. and Bipolaris sorokiana (Sacc.) Shoemaker were more frequently isolated from wheat, and F. solani (Mart.) Sacc., F. oxysporum Schlecht. and Aphanomyces euteiches Drechsler were more frequently isolated from pea. Pathogen communities from asymptomatic and diseased patches of fields were similar. Overall, composition of the fungal community changed over winter, but the most abundant species did not change. The results show that multiple pathogens, and particularly Fusarium spp., can survive overwinter on pea residue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a great number of applications in Internet of Things (IoT) have been developed. In this context, many methodologies and technologies are used for several frameworks, including indoor localization. In this field, as highlighted in recent years, one of the most important aims of modern indoor applications in IoT is to identify how to manage and correctly convey people flow. This study aims to investigate the most common methods, technologies and applications for indoor localization in IoT and analyze the major systems currently in use and the application of these solutions to actual conditions. Following this, we propose an innovative method to detect people flow in indoor location. Based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology, in this paper we analyze the possibility to use our system for many kinds of applications. The first experimental results show good performance of our system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drones are widely known for their mobility and ease of use and represent a significant technological breakthrough with various applications. In this paper, a novel inexpensive Search and Rescue (SAR)-based approach for application in indoor environments is presented. The usage of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has been evaluated with respect to other technologies and a conceptual view of the complete setup has been presented. Besides the cost of the drone and the locator devices, the other hardware is relatively inexpensive costing only a fraction of a US dollar. The system is believed to cover a wide area in a small-time frame ranging a few minutes, for instance, a 3600m2 surface area could be scanned in less than 5 minutes. The system is tested by attaching a BLE device in the payload to evaluate the presence of target beacons. Potential upgrades in the system are also proposed, including design modifications for outdoor use and the application in locating missing objects. This system can confidently replace search parties dealing with missing children in public places or venues, with minimal human interaction while bearing the potential for complete automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a very common neurodegenerative disease that occurs mostly in the elderly. There are many main clinical manifestations of PD, such as tremor, bradykinesia, muscle rigidity, etc. Based on the current research on PD, the accurate and convenient detection of early symptoms is the key to detect PD. With the development of microelectronic and sensor technology, it is much easier to measure the barely noticeable tremor in just one hand for the early detection of Parkinson's disease. In this paper, we present a smart wearable device for detecting hand tremor, in which MPU6050 (MIDI Processing Unit) consisting of a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer is used to collect acceleration and angular velocity of fingers. By analyzing the time of specific finger movements, we successfully recognized the tremor signals with high accuracy. Meanwhile, with Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy, BLE) and networking terminal ability, tremor data can be transferred to a monitoring device in real time with extremely lowenergy consumption. The experimental results have shown that the proposed device (smart ring) is convenient for long-term tremor detection which is vital for early detection and treatment for Parkinson's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application for university users for easy navigation inside the building during events.

Le blé dur a besoin d’énergie pour accomplir les principales fonctions métaboliques et physiologiques, cette énergie est fournie principalement par l’azote qui est en outre un constituant fondamental de la plante. Malgré son importance et à cause de sa forte solubilité, l’azote est classé un polluant potentiel pour l’environnement. L’objectif de ce travail est d’étudier la réponse de quatre variétés de blé dur (Karim, Razzak, INRAT100 et Dhahbi) au traitement azoté. Les résultats ont montré que nouvelle obtention (Dhahbi) a donné le meilleur rendement et les efficiences d’utilisation de l’eau les plus élevées que ce soit avec ou sans fertilisation grâce à l’impact d’amélioration génétique. Ainsi, Il est recommandé de planter la variété Dhahbi pour limiter l’utilisation des engrais azotés, protéger l’environnement et maximiser le revenu brut surtout des petits exploitants.

Indoor positioning services have become necessary in many situations. Radio frequency (RF) signals are suitable for being used for positioning because of their ubiquity and imperceptibility. This paper utilizes the information from the baseband of a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) transceiver for angle estimation and signal strength for distance estimation. The scheme constitutes a single-anchor based solution to calculate the position of a client. It significantly reduces the cost of installation by avoiding traditional methods like multilateration or triangulation that require three or more anchors, even in a small space. To improve the performance, we design a fusion algorithm based on a Kalman filter to integrate measurements of the anchor station and simplified pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) results from the client. Experiments show that the proposed solution estimates positions in high precision without initial user location or heading information. The mean error of the implementation is less than 1 m and can be improved to less than 0.5 m with a precise ranging measurement.

Nowadays, research and development of various indoor positioning systems (IPS) have been increasing owing to flourishing social and commercial interest in location-based services (LBSs). Among LBS technologies, we used the Bluetooth low energy beacon in our system, which consumes less energy and is embedded in many current smartphones and tablets. In particular, the fingerprinting method has become a prime choice in the design of IPS owing to its good location estimation and the fact that a line-of-sight from access points is not required. We propose an improved two-step fingerprinting localization using multiple fingerprint features to enhance the localization accuracy. The proposed system uses a propagation model to convert RSS of beacons to distance and estimate the weighted centroid (WC) of nearby beacons. The estimated WCs along with signal strength and rank of the nearby beacons are stored in the server database for localization instead of RSS from all the deployed beacons. First, the proposed system makes use of diverse fingerprinting features to increase localization accuracy that also reduces both the physical size of the database and the amount of data communication with the server in the execution phase; second, affinity propagation clustering minimizes the searching space of RPs and reduces the computational cost; third, exponential averaging is introduced to smooth the noisy RSS. The experimental results obtained by real field deployment show that the proposed method significantly improves the performance of the positioning system in both the positioning accuracy and radio-map database size.

High precision in-vehicle positioning is the basis of providing smart in-vehicle service, passengers' behavior analysis and other issues, and has important practical value. The RSSI (received signal strength indicator) values of BLE (bluetooth low energy) can be used to do analysis and computation in location system. To deal with the problem that RSSI is vulnerable to environmental issues, an in-vehicle location method called VehLoc based on BLE multi-channel multi-RSSI values was proposed. By using a plurality of Bluetooth transmitters, the location of the receiving terminals in the vehicle was analyzed by combining the coarse, fine classifier and distribution fitting of the user's RSSI values in different channels. The experimental results show that the average accuracy of VehLoc in the five main positions in-vehicle classification can reach 90%.

Information gathering system is focused to manage service status in public transportation. Smartphones are first candi- date devices for this purpose because they have an internet connection through a cellular network. Participatory sensing methods, where many common people collaborate to collect information on their own smartphone, have been focused on information gathering. A sensing system requests participants to collect demanded information. On the contrary, they may not be enough to collect information continuously because ordinary people may not exist in a service area. This paper proposes a collaborative mechanism with BLE devices with sensors and smartphones to realize the information gathering system. The proposed mechanism employs Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices as a beacon device that triggers our special application for smartphones. BLE devices also store demanded information with sensors. The special application can be automatically launched when a beacon message arrives on the smartphone and can obtain the demanded information from the BLE device. The benefit of the proposed system is a hands-free operation of the smartphone application because the information gathering process is performed in a background process. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed application can measure its position with a GPS receiver and can upload the obtained location to the cloud automatically.

Pasien Alzheimer merupakan pasien yang memerlukan perhatian dan perawatan khusus dikarenakan ketidakmampuannya dalam mengingat sesuatu. Salah satu teknologi yang sering digunakan untuk tracking objek atau orang dalam ruangan adalah Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Pada makalah ini diusulkan sebuah sistem notifikasi pengawasan pasien Alzheimer pada rumah sakit menggunakan teknologi beacon untuk mencegah hilangnya pasien. Peningkatan keakuratan estimasi posisi pasien dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode filter Kalman. Hal ini dilakukan karena sulitnya penentuan lokasi objek yang diakibatkan adanya derau (noise) maupun tidak akuratnya data pengukuran. Dari hasil pengujian yang dilakukan terlihat bahwa sistem yang dibuat telah mampu memberikan notifikasi pada perawat jika pasien telah melebihi jarak yang ditentukan dengan rata-rata keberhasilan hingga 90%. Penggunaan metode Kalman juga mampu meningkatkan keakuratan estimasi posisi pasien dengan penurunan error estimasi hingga 69,7%.

Annotating activities of daily living (ADL) is vital for developing machine learning models for activity recognition. In addition, it is critical for self-reporting purposes such as in assisted living where the users are asked to log their ADLs. However, data annotation becomes extremely challenging in real-world data collection scenarios, where the users have to provide annotations and labels on their own. Methods such as self-reports that rely on users' memory and compliance are prone to human errors and become burdensome since they increase users' cognitive load. In this article, we propose a light yet effective context-aware change point detection algorithm that is implemented and run on a smartwatch for facilitating data annotation for high-level ADLs. The proposed system detects the moments of transition from one to another activity and prompts the users to annotate their data. We leverage freely available Bluetooth lowenergy (BLE) information broadcasted by various devices to detect changes in environmental context. This contextual information is combined with a motion-based change point detection algorithm, which utilizes data from wearable motion sensors, to reduce the false positives and enhance the system's accuracy. Through real-world experiments, we show that the proposed system improves the quality and quantity of labels collected from users by reducing human errors while eliminating users' cognitive load and facilitating the data annotation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Plant Science is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Plant Science is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Stem rust, caused by Puccinia graminis, is a catastrophic disease that has and continues to cause yield losses in barley, oat, and wheat crops worldwide. Use of host resistance genes is the most economic, efficient, and environmentally best method to control the disease. Resistance genes have been incorporated into most commercial cultivars and have been effective, for races in the North American populations of P. graminis. However, new races of stem rust are constantly emerging and therefore it is imperative to monitor the virulence structure in the populations to detect new races with increased virulence. Stem rust samples were collected in 2013 and 2014 in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan to determine the incidence and severity of stem rust in barley (Hordeum vulgare), oat (Avena sativa), and wheat (Triticum aestivum) fields and to characterize the virulence dynamics in the pathogen populations. No stem rust was found in cultivated wheat, and incidence was at trace (<1%) levels in barley fields and very low (0–5%) levels in oat fields in 2013 and 2014. In wheat trap plots and collections from barley, race QFCSC of P. graminis f. sp. tritici was dominant in 2013 (85.9%) and was the only race found in 2014. Races MCCFC, QTHJF, RFCSC, RKQSC, and TMRTF were at low (<5%) levels in 2013. From collections in oat fields and stands of wild barley, nine races of P. graminis f. sp. avenae were found in 2013, with TJS (56.9%) and TJJ (23.5%) the most frequent. In 2014, we found only six races and TJS (74.5%) and TJJ (19.1%) were the most frequent. No new races of stem rust were detected in Canada in 2013 or 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positioning technology is performing important functions in augmented reality, smart factory, and autonomous driving. Among the positioning techniques, the positioning method using beacons has been considered a challenging task due to the deviation of the RSSI value. In this study, the position of a moving object is predicted by training a neural network that takes the RSSI value of the receiver as an input and the distance as the target value. To do this, the measured distance versus RSSI was collected. A neural network was introduced to create synthetic data from the collected actual data. Based on this neural network, the RSSI value versus distance was predicted. The real value of RSSI was obtained as a neural network for generating synthetic data, and based on this value, the coordinates of the object were estimated by learning a neural network that tracks the location of a terminal in a virtual environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to the need for tracking of physical contacts and potential exposure to disease. Traditional contact tracing can be augmented by electronic tools called "electronic contact tracing" or "exposure notification.". Some methods were built to work with smartphones; however, smartphones are not prevalent in some high-contact areas (e.g., schools and nursing homes). We present the design and initial testing of low-cost, highly privacy preserving wearable exposure notification devices. Several devices were constructed based on existing hardware and operated independently of a smartphone. The method (devices and analyses) was not able to reliably use the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) as a proxy for distance between pairs of devices; the accuracy of RSSI as a proxy for distance decreased dramatically outside of the idealized conditions. However, even an imperfect device could be useful for research on how people use and move through spaces. With some improvement, these devices could be used to understand disease spread and human or animal interaction in indoor environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Plant Science is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fusarium head blight (FHB) and the associated mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) negatively impact the wheat industry worldwide. In North America, FHB is mainly caused by Fusarium graminearum sensu stricto. The purpose of this study was to evaluate, under storage conditions, the expression of the DON biosynthetic gene trichodiene synthase (Tri5) of F. graminearum in grain of hard red winter wheat cultivars 'Overley' (FHB-susceptible) and 'Overland' (moderately resistant to FHB) from field plots treated or untreated with the triazole fungicide Prosaro and the strobilurin fungicide Headline. Infected grain was stored and periodically sampled to determine gene expression by qRT-PCR analysis. The F. graminearum housekeeping gene GAPDH was consistently detected, indicative of metabolically active fungi, and Tri5 detection was significantly higher in 'Overley' compared with 'Overland'. Tri5 gene expression and DON concentrations showed little to no correlation; consequently, Tri5 expression levels did not accurately predict DON concentrations. The strobilurin did not significantly reduce Tri5 gene expression compared with untreated wheat. In the triazole treatment, a significant reduction in the relative expression of Tri5 was detected after 120 days, as well as a downregulation of Tri5 from 60 to 120 days of storage in 'Overley'. In grain from strobilurin-treated plots of both cultivars, the expression of Tri5 increased from 0 to 30 days after tempering. Genetic expression of Tri5 that is necessary for the production of DON can increase during storage of high-moisture grain. Fusarium fungi can persist in wheat kernels for several months postharvest and may actively produce toxin during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex way radio waves propagate indoors, leads to the derivation of location using fingerprinting techniques. In this cases, location is computed relying on WiFi signals strength mapping. Recent Bluetooth low energy (BLE) provides new opportunities to explore positioning. In this work is studied how BLE beacons radio signals can be used for indoor location scenarios, as well as their precision. Additionally, this paper also introduces a method for beacon-based positioning, based on signal strength measurements at key distances for each beacon. This method allows to use different beacon types, brands, and location conditions/constraints. Depending on each situation (i.e., hardware and location) it is possible to adapt the distance measuring curve to minimize errors and support higher distances, while at the same time keeping good precision. Moreover, this paper also presents a comparison with traditional positioning method, using formulas for distance estimation, and the position triangulation. The proposed study is performed inside the campus of Viseu Polytechnic Institute, and tested using a group of students, each with his smart-phone, as proof of concept. Experimental results show that BLE allows having < 1.5 m error approximately 90% of the times, and the experimental results using the proposed location detection method show that the proposed position technique has 13.2% better precision than triangulation, for distances up to 10 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief presents a 2.4 GHz receiver front end in the form of architecture of quadrature LNA-Mixer-VCO-filter (QLMVF) cell in 180 nm CMOS with split-transconductance amplifiers (TCAs). Instead of a single stack-current-reusing QLMV scheme, the proposed design employs two separate current reuse stages with a passive mixer to provide better flicker noise and linearity performance. A shunt-inductive input-match single-ended low noise amplifier (LNA) proposed with an improved package parasitic compensation through a simple varactor tuning. The quad-flat-no-leads (QFN) packaged receiver provides a measured maximum conversion gain of 40 dB, a noise figure (NF) of 10 dB, and a third-order input intercept point (IIP3) of −5 dBm with a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 60 dB. The front end consuming 2.7 mW of power from a 1.8 V supply and occupies an area of 1.5 mm2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of production planning and control in production companies largely depends on the accuracy of the database regarding the status quo of the production process, as well as the time required for each production step. Especially in single and small batch production, it is difficult to create a reliable database due to the large product spectrum and the variation in the production process. For this reason, this paper examines the potential of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Beacons to create a low-cost real-time locating system (RTLS). In comparison to other existing RTLS solutions like RFID, BLE stands out through very low hardware costs and a high compatibility to almost every mobile device. Through a signal strength based approach in combination with probabilistic neural networks, the RTLS has been able to achieve a positioning accuracy with a mean absolute error of up to 0,74 m in an industry-like environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, many houses/apartments are rented out for travelers in sites like Airbnb. A way to give out temporary access key for the guest is necessary for both the guest and hosts convenience. This paper presents an electronic door lock mechanism that able to generate dynamic temporary access key for the guest. The door lock is controlled by a smartphone using the dynamic key which is transferred though Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection. The development of dynamic key utilizes block cipher encryption and fusion methods (Artificial Neural Network) to generate the block cipher keys. The generator produces a unique dynamic key for a specific period of time and nRF8001 proves to be a reliable Bluetooth Low Energy transmitter and receiver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat stem rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt), has re-emerged as an important disease of wheat. This pathogen continues to spread and evolve new virulent races. The international letter-code system of nomenclature has been used to pathotype these new emerging races, and gene SrMcN from 'McNair 701' winter wheat, which is one of the differential lines, was examined in this study. The chromosome and map position of gene SrMcN have not been determined, and thus the objective of this research was to genetically map SrMcN. A doubled haploid population (n = 186) was made from the cross 'LMPG'/'McNair 701' and inoculated with Pgt race QCCJB. The DH population segregated 95 resistant : 91 susceptible lines, which fitted the expected 1 : 1 ratio (χ2 = 0.09, P = 0.77, NS) for a single gene. SrMcN mapped to chromosome 2DL using the 90K iSelect wheat SNP array, and Kompetitive allele specific (KASP) polymerase chain reaction markers located SrMcN to the same position as Sr54 previously found in 'Norin 40'. Comparison of stem rust seedling reactions using 12 diverse Pgt races indicated that SrMcN and Sr54 had an identical pattern of responses and similar low infection types (from ; to 2−) to races LBBLB, LCBNB and QCCJB. Based on the same chromosomal location on 2DL and identical seedling responses as Sr54 to several races of Pgt with diverse virulence, we assert that the resistance gene in 'McNair 701' winter wheat previously designated as SrMcN is most likely Sr54. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yield losses in wheat and barley cultivars varying in stripe rust reactions were determined under natural infection conditions in fungicide treated and untreated plots at Lacombe and Olds, central Alberta, from 2012 to 2014. Stripe rust caused by Puccinia striiformis was the major disease observed during the 3-year test. Moderate stripe rust severity caused significant yield losses of over 20% in a highly susceptible wheat, 'AC Crystal', while no severe yield losses occurred for resistant and moderately resistant cultivars/lines. However, a moderate level of stripe rust and the leaf spot complex caused reductions in thousand kernel weight (TKW) ranging from 5.4% to 13.5% for all wheat and barley cultivars/lines tested except for 'Lillian' wheat and 'Seebe' barley. When stripe rust developed early in the growing season resulting in severe disease, there were significant yield losses ranging from 17.6% to 91% for five wheat and two barley genotypes. Severe TKW and test weight losses also occurred for susceptible wheat and barley. The magnitude of yield losses in resistant and intermediate cultivars was smaller than in susceptible cultivars in the same tests. The present study demonstrated that one foliar-applied fungicide application was generally capable of protecting susceptible wheat and barley cultivars from stripe rust, while the use of resistant and intermediate cultivars was necessary for yield protection when moderate levels of disease occurred. Fungicide application was needed to reduce yield losses for resistant and moderately resistant cultivars when leaf spot diseases were prevalent and an early onset of stripe rust was observed, which can lead to severe stripe rust development even in resistant varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several Fusarium species cause Fusarium head blight (FHB), a devastating disease that affects wheat and other small grain cereals. Besides causing significant yield losses, FHB pathogens reduce the quality of the grain and may produce mycotoxins that are harmful to both humans and animals. The development of effective management strategies for this disease requires an understanding of the composition of the FHB pathogen populations, which is important because different populations could be affected selectively. Recent reports of shifts in populations of FHB pathogens have shown that these populations are dynamic and change continuously, often associated with increased yield losses or changes in the mycotoxins produced in the grain. These population shifts include: replacement of F. graminearum by F. poae in Italy, hypothesized to be due to variation in environmental conditions; replacement of F. culmorum by F. graminearum in Europe, associated with climate change and increased maize production; a more aggressive and toxigenic F. asiaticum 3-ADON population replacing the existing NIV population in China; and a highly toxigenic population composed mainly of F. graminearum 3-ADON isolates replacing the existing 15-ADON population in North America. Additionally, reports of recent introductions of foreign species or populations into new areas include: F. asiaticum outside of Asia, F. graminearum NIV isolates in the USA and Luxembourg, F. graminearum 15-ADON isolates in Norway, F. graminearum in South Korea, F. boothii in Europe and USA, F. vorosii in Hungary and F. cortaderiae in New Zealand and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bluetooth (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) are pervasive wireless technologies specified in the Bluetooth standard. The standard includes key negotiation protocols used to generate long-term keys (during pairing) and session keys (during secure connection establishment). In this work, we demonstrate that the key negotiation protocols of Bluetooth and BLE are vulnerable to standard-compliant entropy downgrade attacks. In particular, we show how an attacker can downgrade the entropy of any Bluetooth session key to 1 byte, and of any BLE long-term key and session key to 7 bytes. Such low entropy values enable the attacker to brute-force Bluetooth long-term keys and BLE long-term and session keys, and to break all the security guarantees promised by Bluetooth and BLE. As a result of our attacks, an attacker can decrypt all the ciphertext and inject valid ciphertext in any Bluetooth and BLE network. Our key negotiation downgrade attacks are conducted remotely, do not require access to the victims' devices, and are stealthy to the victims. As the attacks are standard-compliant, they are effective regardless of the usage of the strongest Bluetooth and BLE security modes (including Secure Connections), the Bluetooth version, and the implementation details of the devices used by the victims. We successfully attack 38 Bluetooth devices (32 unique Bluetooth chips) and 19 BLE devices from different vendors, using all the major versions of the Bluetooth standard. Finally, we present effective legacy compliant and non-legacy compliant countermeasures to mitigate our key negotiation downgrade attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Larhyss Journal is the property of Biskra University, Research Laboratory in Subterranean & Surface Hydraulics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)