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Abstract This research work presents a novel secured spatial steganography algorithm consisting of three stages. In the first stage, a secret message is divided into three parts, each is encrypted using a tan logistic map encryption key with a unique seed value. In the second stage, the encrypted parts are transformed into quick response codes, serving as a layer of channel coding. Subsequently, the quick response codes are decoded back into bit‐streams. To enhance security, a uniquely‐seeded Mersenne Twister key is generated and employed to apply DNA coding onto each bit‐stream. The resulting bit‐streams are then embedded in the least significant bits of the RGB channels of a cover image. Finally, the RGB channels are merged to form a single stego image. A comprehensive set of experimental analyses is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed secure steganography algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate the algorithm's robustness against various attacks and its ability to achieve high embedding capacity while maintaining imperceptibility. The proposed algorithm offers a promising solution for secure information hiding in the spatial domain, with potential applications in areas such as data transmission, digital forensics, and covert communication.

Abstract This study proposes a new deep-learning approach incorporating a superfluity mechanism to categorize knee X-ray images into osteoporosis, osteopenia, and normal classes. The superfluity mechanism suggests the use of two distinct types of blocks. The rationale is that, unlike a conventional serially stacked layer, the superfluity concept involves concatenating multiple layers, enabling features to flow into two branches rather than a single branch. Two knee datasets have been utilized for training, validating, and testing the proposed model. We use transfer learning with two pre-trained models, AlexNet and ResNet50, comparing the results with those of the proposed model. The results indicate that the performance of the pre-trained models, namely AlexNet and ResNet50, was inferior to that of the proposed Superfluity DL architecture. The Superfluity DL model demonstrated the highest accuracy (85.42% for dataset1 and 79.39% for dataset2) among all the pre-trained models.

Abstract A new image encryption algorithm based on the triple chaotic maps is proposed to deal with the issues of inadequate security and low encryption efficiency. Coloured images consist of three linked channels used in the scheme. This method uses different keys to break the correlations between adjacent pixels in each channel. The triple chaotic maps are Lorenz, 2D‐Logistic, and Henon. First, the plain image is split into RGB channels to encrypt each channel separately. Second, the triple chaotic maps generate two groups of keys. The first group of keys performs a pixel permutation, resulting in scrambled channels used as input for the following step. Finally, the second group of keys is used to diffuse the scrambled channels independently, resulting in diffused channels, which are then merged to obtain a cipher image. The triple chaotic maps of different orders generate the cipher image with great unpredictability and security. The security is evaluated using various measures. The results demonstrated a high level of security attained by successfully encrypting coloured images. Recent encryption algorithms are compared in terms of entropy, correlation coefficients, and attack robustness. The proposed method provided outstanding security and outperformed existing image encryption algorithms.

This paper presents a novel, robust, efficient, and simple optimization algorithm called the Object-Oriented Programming Optimization Algorithm (OOPOA) for tackling constrained and unconstrained optimization problems. The algorithm is inspired by the inheritance concept of Object-Oriented programming languages, where the features of a class are classified into three types according to inheritance probability: public, private, and protected. The object-oriented programming inheritance concept is implemented in the algorithm to update the population for the next generations. The proposed algorithm ensures exploitation by selecting the solution with the highest fitness to be inherited in each iteration. It ensures exploration by applying a mutation process that helps explore wide regions in the search space. The performance of this technique is demonstrated by solving 34 different optimization tasks, including 20 standard benchmark problems, ten IEEE Congress of Evolutionary Computation benchmark test functions, and four constrained real-world engineering design problems.

In this paper, we introduce the Enhanced Whale Optimization Algorithm (EWA) to optimize dependent task offloading in a multi-edge cloud computing environment. Our proposed algorithm aims to identify the most suitable offloading scenario for dependent tasks, focusing on minimizing total processing latency, energy consumption, and associated costs. We operate within a system comprising many decentralized Mobile Edge Computing servers (MECs) and a centralized cloud server. Two novel improvement operations, namely Frame Shifting (FS) and Load Redistribution Strategy (LRS), are introduced to enhance the performance of the whale algorithm. Through simulation, our results demonstrate the superior performance of EWA. Specifically, compared to the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), EWA achieves a remarkable reduction in latency by 22.84%, a substantial decrease in energy consumption by 78.28%, and a notable reduction in cost usage by 61.47%. These outcomes underscore the efficacy and practical significance of the proposed EWA in addressing the challenges posed by dependent task offloading in the multi-edge cloud computing landscape.

Abstract Online platforms and social networking have increased in the contemporary years. They are now a major news source worldwide, leading to the online proliferation of Fake News (FNs). These FNs are alarming because they fundamentally reshape public opinion, which may cause customers to leave these online platforms, threatening the reputations of several organizations and industries. This rapid dissemination of FNs makes it imperative for automated systems to detect them, encouraging many researchers to propose various systems to classify news articles and detect FNs automatically. In this paper, a Fake News Detection (FND) methodology is presented based on an effective IBAVO-AO algorithm, which stands for hybridization of African Vultures Optimization (AVO) and Aquila Optimization (AO) algorithms, with an extreme gradient boosting Tree (Xgb-Tree) classifier. The suggested methodology involves three main phases: Initially, the unstructured FNs dataset is analyzed, and the essential features are extracted by tokenizing, encoding, and padding the input news words into a sequence of integers utilizing the GLOVE approach. Then, the extracted features are filtered using the effective Relief algorithm to select only the appropriate ones. Finally, the recovered features are used to classify the news items using the suggested IBAVO-AO algorithm based on the Xgb-Tree classifier. Hence, the suggested methodology is distinguished from prior models in that it performs automatic data pre-processing, optimization, and classification tasks. The proposed methodology is carried out on the ISOT-FNs dataset, containing more than 44 thousand multiple news articles divided into truthful and fake. We validated the proposed methodology’s reliability by examining numerous evaluation metrics involving accuracy, fitness values, the number of selected features, Kappa, Precision, Recall, F1-score, Specificity, Sensitivity, ROC_AUC, and MCC. Then, the proposed methodology is compared against the most common meta-heuristic optimization algorithms utilizing the ISOT-FNs. The experimental results reveal that the suggested methodology achieved optimal classification accuracy and F1-score and successfully categorized more than 92.5% of news articles compared to its peers. This study will assist researchers in expanding their understanding of meta-heuristic optimization algorithms applications for FND. Graphical Abstract

Vehicle communication is one of the most vital aspects of modern transportation systems because it enables real-time data transmission between vehicles and infrastructure to improve traffic flow and road safety. The next generation of mobile technology, 5G, was created to address earlier generations' growing need for high data rates and quality of service issues. 5G cellular technology aims to eliminate penetration loss by segregating outside and inside settings and allowing extremely high transmission speeds, achieved by installing hundreds of dispersed antenna arrays using a distributed antenna system (DAS). Huge multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems are accomplished via DASs and huge MIMO systems, where hundreds of dispersed antenna arrays are built. Because deep learning (DL) techniques employ artificial neural networks with at least one hidden layer, they are used in this study for vehicle recognition. They can swiftly process vast quantities of labeled training data to identify features. Therefore, this paper employed the VGG19 DL model through transfer learning to address the task of vehicle detection and obstacle identification. It also proposes a novel horizontal handover prediction method based on channel characteristics. The suggested techniques are designed for heterogeneous networks or horizontal handovers using DL. In the designated surrounding regions of 5G environments, the suggested detection and handover algorithms identified vehicles with a success rate of 97 % and predicted the next station for handover.

The COVID-19 virus is causing a global pandemic. The total number of new coronavirus cases worldwide by the end of November 2020 had already surpassed 60 million. The World Health Organization (WHO) has determined that wearing masks is a crucial precaution during the COVID-19 epidemic to limit the growth of viruses, and facemasks are frequently seen in public places worldwide. Also, many public service providers wear face masks (covering their mouths and noses). These events brought attention to the need for automatic computer-vision-based object detection (masked face detection) methods to track public behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tools for monitor people who have not used masks in public service areas in real-time. Reducing the spread of infectious diseases can occur when masked face detection techniques are used for authentication instead of mask removal for face matching. A superior framework of masked face detection could improve security systems and lower the rate of crime. Masked face detection is a computer vision method standard in people's daily lives to recognize, discover, and recognize masked faces in pictures and videos. This study provides a thorough and systematic analysis of masked face detection algorithms. With the help of examples, we have thoroughly examined and reviewed the studies done concerning face mask identification and techniques for masked face detection.Additionally, we compared and explained different masked face detection dataset types, libraries, and techniques. We also discussed the challenges with masked face detection and whether the researchers could overcome them. We have discussed and conducted a thorough evaluation of the accuracy, pros, and cons of various approaches by comparing their performance on multiple datasets. As a result, this study aims to give the researcher a broader viewpoint to aid him in finding patterns and trends in masked face detection in various COVID-19 contexts, overcoming challenges that are still present, and creating future algorithms for masked face detection that are more reliable and accurate.

In various image-processing applications, the fractional-order functions outperform their equivalent integer-order functions. In this study, we proposed a novel technique to encrypt color images with fractional-order chaotic systems, where the fractional-order simple Loranz is integrated with the FQM. Our novel part is hybridizing two maps (Lorenz & Fibonacci). The new algorithm benefits from the strengths of the fractional-order simple Lorenz chaotic system and the FQM to get a good performance technique. We confirm that our suggested encryption algorithms are effective and robust against attacks. Our suggested technique comprises numerous sequences: The primary color channels of the input image were separated into R-, G, and B-channel. The processes of confusion and diffusion are independent for each channel. The simple Loranz generates random integers using fractional ordering to enable pixel placements. We utilized the Fibonacci Q-matrix to dilute every $2^{\ast} 2$ block comprising the permitted image.

Feature selection (FS) is a crucial task in machine learning applications, which aims to select the most appropriate feature subset while maintaining high classification accuracy with the minimum number of selected features. Despite the widespread usage of metaheuristics as wrapper-based FS techniques, they show reduced effectiveness and increased computational cost when applied to high-dimensional datasets. This paper presents a novel Binary Object-Oriented Programming Optimization Algorithm (BOOPOA) for FS of high dimensional datasets, where the Object-Oriented Programming Optimization Algorithm (OOPOA) is a novel optimization technique inspired by the inheritance concept of Object-Oriented programming (OOP) languages. The effectiveness of this method in solving high dimensional FS problems is validated by using 26 datasets, most of which are of high dimension (large number of features). Seven existing FS algorithms are compared with the proposed OOPOA using various metrics, including best fitness, average fitness (AVG), selection size, and computational time. The results prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the other FS algorithms, having an average performance of %92.5, 0.078, 0.084, %38.9, and 8.6 min for classification accuracy, best fitness, average fitness, size reduction ratio, and computational time. The outcomes demonstrate the proposed FS approach's superiority over currently used methods.

Knee Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common joint diseases that may cause physical disability associated with a significant personal and socioeconomic burden. X-ray imaging is the cheapest and most common method to detect Knee (OA). Accurate classification of knee OA can help physicians manage treatment efficiently and slow knee OA progression. This study aims to classify knee OA X-ray images according to anatomical types, such as uni or bicompartmental. The study proposes a deep learning model for classifying uni or bicompartmental knee OA based on redefined residual learning with CNN. The proposed model was trained, validated, and tested on a dataset containing 733 knee X-ray images (331 normal Knee images, 205 unicompartmental, and 197 bicompartmental knee images). The results show 61.81 % and 68.33 % for accuracy and specificity, respectively. Then, the performance of the proposed model was compared with different pre-trained CNNs. The proposed model achieved better results than all pre-trained CNNs.

This paper proposes a new robust watermarking method for securing color medical images, where the proposed method relies on combining Slant, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), and quaternion Fourier-Transform (QFT). The stimulus behind this combination is to improve the invisibility and durability of the proposed method. First, the input cover image is split into four equal parts for fast computation and then encrypted using one-time padding (OTP) encryption to increase robustness. Slant transform is applied to encrypted blocks to increase image compaction. The SVD is applied to the transformed image blocks to preserve quality during the embedding process. Finally, the QFT is applied to increase visual imperceptibility. The binary watermark is first compressed using SVD, scrambled using Arnold encryption to raise security, and then embedded in the modified QFT coefficients. The extraction procedures are the inverse operations of the embedding procedures. The proposed method achieves a good tradeoff between invisibility and robustness compared to existing schemes versus many geometrical, processing, and hybrid attacks. Also, the proposed method attains high visual imperceptibility. The extracted watermark seems to be the original watermark with minimum BER and high NC values. Empirical findings indicate that the proposed method is giving better invisibility and robustness results while maintaining a high capacity compared to other existing watermarking methods.

A communications system consists of interconnected telecommunications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment. Increasing network limits to fulfill the developing needs of consumers has prompted the advancement of cell correspondence networks from 1G to 5G. Many heterogeneous connections request higher information rates, lesser postponements, improved framework limit, and predominant throughput. The accessible range of assets is restricted and should be deftly utilized by mobile network operators (MNOs) to cope with the rising demands. This paper presents a detailed survey on vehicular communications systems, their forms, and handover in each category in 5G networks.

Internet of Things (IoT) enables different smart environment objects to communicate without involving humans. Recently, IoT has started a new challenge within the healthcare sector called the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). The huge amounts of data generated by IoMT entities need to be analyzed in real-time to improve the performance and quality of service of the IoMT applications. Mobile Edge Computing-enabled 5G system is shown as a successful paradigm to address such an obstacle. Numerous frameworks are introduced in literature based on this idea. This paper presents a thorough discussion of MEC-based IoMT healthcare systems.

Abstract Human Skin cancer is commonly detected visually through clinical screening followed by a dermoscopic examination. However, automated skin lesion classification remains challenging due to the visual similarities between benign and melanoma lesions. In this work, the authors proposed a new Artificial Intelligence-Based method to classify skin lesions. In this method, we used Residual Deep Convolution Neural Network. We implemented several convolution filters for multi-layer feature extraction and cross-channel correlation by sliding dot product filters instead of sliding filters along the horizontal axis. The proposed method overcomes the imbalanced dataset problem by converting the dataset from image and label to vector of image and weight. The proposed method is tested and evaluated using the challenging datasets ISIC-2019 & ISIC-2020. It outperformed the existing deep convolutional networks in the multiclass classification of skin lesions. Graphical Abstract

Medical video watermarking is one of the beneficial and efficient tools to prohibit important patients' data from illicit enrollment and redistribution. In this paper, a new blind watermarking scheme has been proposed to improve the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and perceptual quality of a medical video with minimum distortion. The proposed scheme is based on 2D-DWT and dual Hessenberg-QR decomposition, where the input medical video is initially processed into frames. Then, the processed frames are transformed into sub-bands using 2D-DWT, followed by applying Hessenberg-QR decomposition on the selected wavelet HL2 sub-band. The watermark is scrambled via Arnold cat map to raise confidentiality and then concealed in the modified selected features. The watermark is extracted in a fully blind mode without referencing the original video, which reduces the extraction time. The proposed scheme maintained a fundamental tradeoff between robustness and visual imperceptibility compared to existing methods against many commonly encountered attacks. The visual imperceptibility has been evaluated using well-known metrics PSNR, SSIM, Q-index, and histogram analysis. The proposed scheme achieves a high PSNR value of (70.6899 dB) with minimal distortion and a high robustness level with an average NC value of (0.9998) and BER value of (0.0023) while conserving a large payload capacity. The obtained results show superior performance over similar video watermarking methods. The limitation of this scheme is the elapsed time during the embedding process since we utilized dual Hessenberg-QR decomposition. One possible solution to reduce time consumption is simple decompositions like bound-constrained SVM or similar decompositions.

The fast-paced advancement in multimedia production and exchanges over unsecured networks have led to a dire need to develop security applications. In this regard, chaos theory has much to offer, especially high-dimensional (HD) chaotic functions of fractional order. The authors propose a new symmetric, secure and robust image encryption method in this research work. In this method, the authors hybridize the Chen and Chua chaotic functions with a Memristor circuit to benefit from the strengths of each. Such a hybridization of systems allows for the generation of pseudo-random numbers which are used to develop encryption keys and substitution boxes (S-boxes). For the application of the generated encryption keys towards carrying out data diffusion, instead of the most commonly used approach of bit-stream level $XOR$ , this work utilizes different logical and arithmetic operations, which is made possible by performing this process over variable numerical bases. Moreover, multiple S-boxes of varying base- $n$ are generated and utilized in a parallel fashion, carrying out data confusion. The computed numerical results reflect the superior capabilities of the proposed image encryption technique, signifying resilience and robustness against various attacks.

The development of Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) technology leads to high upgrades in monitor signal systems concerning healthcare. Battery life-saving is one of the biggest issues facing healthcare monitoring signal systems. The most important approach to achieve this goal is to decrease the signal size (i.e., data or signal compression); thus, we need to make data compression. In this study, we introduced a novel approach to decrease the size of the transmitted Phonocardiography (FPCG) bio-medical signal by a set of Fractional Order Chebychev Discrete Orthogonal Moments with the Modified Gram-Schmidt Method (FrCMs- MGSM). The efficiency of the proposed approach has been estimated over a benchmark dataset called Fetal PCG, using many sound metrics: QS, CR, SNR, PRD, and PSNR. The efficiency of the proposed approach was evident when compared to recently published approaches. The empirical findings show that the suggested strategy is highly effective regarding compression time (0.99) and computing efficiency (37.64). The outcomes also demonstrate a (4388 ms) reduction in wearable device wake-up time. Thanks to the suggested compression algorithm, which significantly reduces energy consumption.

Plant diseases are one of the primary causes of decreased agricultural production quality and quantity. With ongoing changes in plant structure and cultivation techniques, new diseases are constantly arising on plant leaves. Thus, accurate classification and detection of plant leaf diseases in their early stages will limit the spread of the infection and support the healthy development of plant production. This work proposes a novel lightweight deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model for obtaining high-level hidden feature representations. The deep features are then fused with traditional handcrafted local binary pattern (LBP) features to capture local texture information in plant leaf images. The proposed model is trained and tested on three publicly available datasets (Apple Leaf, Tomato Leaf, and Grape Leaf). On the three datasets, the proposed approach achieves 99%, 96.6%, and 98.5% validation accuracies, respectively, and 98.8%, 96.5%, and 98.3% test accuracies, respectively. The results of the experiments show that the proposed approach can provide a better control solution for plant diseases.

Skin cancer is a senior public health issue that could profit from computer-aided diagnosis to decrease the encumbrance of this widespread disease. Researchers have been more motivated to develop computer-aided diagnosis systems because visual examination wastes time. The initial stage in skin lesion analysis is skin lesion segmentation, which might assist in the following categorization task. It is a difficult task because sometimes the whole lesion might be the same colors, and the borders of pigment regions can be foggy. Several studies have effectively handled skin lesion segmentation; nevertheless, developing new methodologies to improve efficiency is necessary. This work thoroughly analyzes the most advanced algorithms and methods for skin lesion segmentation. The review begins with traditional segmentation techniques, followed by a brief review of skin lesion segmentation using deep learning and optimization techniques. The main objective of this work is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a wide range of algorithms. Additionally, it examines various commonly used datasets for skin lesions and the metrics used to evaluate the performance of these techniques.

Considering the current dependency on digital technology in modern society, the protection of multimedia is highly important. Encryption is vital in modern digital communication, ensuring data confidentiality, authentication, integrity, and non-repudiation. Multimedia encryption-based security techniques are becoming increasingly important as they allow for the secure sharing of multimedia content on digital platforms. This survey aims to review the state of secure and privacy-preserving encryption schemes applicable to digital multimedia, such as digital images, digital video, and digital audio. An extensive analysis of the existing cryptography schemes and multimedia encryption algorithms will be conducted to give an extensive overview of the current state of security encryption schemes specifically designed for digital multimedia technology. The survey results will be used to understand better the effectiveness and reliability of secure multimedia encryption schemes and contribute to developing efficient and secure encryption schemes in the future.

Orthogonal generalized Laguerre moments of fractional orders (FrGLMs) are signal and image descriptors. The utilization of the FrGLMs in the analysis of big-size signals encounters three challenges. First, calculating the high-order moments is a time-consuming process. Second, accumulating numerical errors leads to numerical instability and degrades the reconstructed signals’ quality. Third, the QR decomposition technique is needed to preserve the orthogonality of the higher-order moments. In this paper, the authors derived a new recurrence formula for calculating the FrGLMs, significantly reducing the computational CPU times. We used the Schwarz–Rutishauser algorithm as an alternative to the QR decomposition technique. The proposed method for computing FrGLMs for big-size signals is accurate, simple, and fast. The proposed algorithm has been tested using the MIT-BIH arrhythmia benchmark dataset. The results show the proposed method’s superiority over existing methods in terms of processing time and reconstruction capability. Concerning the reconstructed capability, it has achieved superiority with average values of 25.3233 and 15.6507 with the two metrics PSNR and MSE, respectively. Concerning the elapsed reconstruction time, it also achieved high superiority with an efficiency gain of 0.8. The proposed method is suitable for utilization in the Internet of Healthcare Things.

Skin Cancer (SC) is among the most hazardous due to its high mortality rate. Therefore, early detection of this disease would be very helpful in the treatment process. Multilevel Thresholding (MLT) is widely used for extracting regions of interest from medical images. Therefore, this paper utilizes the recent Coronavirus Disease Optimization Algorithm (COVIDOA) to address the MLT issue of SC images utilizing the hybridization of Otsu, Kapur, and Tsallis as fitness functions. Various SC images are utilized to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is compared to the following five meta-heuristic algorithms: Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA), Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA), Reptile Search Algorithm (RSA), Flower Pollination Algorithm (FPA), Seagull Optimization Algorithm (SOA), and Artificial Gorilla Troops Optimizer (GTO) to prove its superiority. The performance of all algorithms is evaluated using a variety of measures, such as Mean Square Error (MSE), Peak Signal-To-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Feature Similarity Index Metric (FSIM), and Normalized Correlation Coefficient (NCC). The results of the experiments prove that the proposed algorithm surpasses several competing algorithms in terms of MSE, PSNR, FSIM, and NCC segmentation metrics and successfully solves the segmentation issue.

Surely surveillance cameras are certainly important in all aspects of life. We have become in an era where we need to use surveillance cameras everywhere, homes, schools, banks, hospitals, and companies, even in the general streets, to monitor everything that happens and follow the progress of those places with all safety by surveillance videos. However, the pervasiveness of surveillance cameras has become an issue for people’s privacy. This paper proposes a novel method for surveillance video privacy protection using block scrambling-based encryption and DCNN-based object detection. An object detection model based on DCNN You Only Look Once version 3 (YOLOv3) is used to detect the faces of the people. Then, the detected faces are scrambled using the fast block scrambling technique. Finally, the scrambled faces are encrypted using a secret key produced from a chaotic logistic map. The bounding boxes that output from the YOLOv3 are modified to include the entire edges of the detected faces to prevent any leaks of the sensitive regions. The simulation results and security analysis confirmed the proposed method’s effectiveness in protecting the surveillance videos’ privacy.

Patients’ readmission can be considered as a critical factor affecting cost reduction while maintaining a high-quality treatment of patients. Therefore, predicting and controlling patients’ readmission rates would significantly improve the healthcare service. In this study, we aim at predicting the readmission of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) patients through the deployment of machine learning algorithms. Area Under Curve (AUC) and ACCuracy (ACC) were considered as the main criteria for evaluating models’ prediction power in each time frame. Then, the importance of the variables for each outcome was explicitly identified, and defined important variables have then been differentiated. Our study could achieve the highest accuracy in predicting readmission with %91 ACC.

Recently, digital images have become used in many applications, where they have become the focus of digital image processing researchers. Image forgery represents one hot topic on which researchers prioritize their studies. We concentrate on the copy-move image forgery topic as a deceptive forgery type. In copy-move image forgery, a part of an image is copied and placed in the same image to produce the forgery image. In this paper, an accurate convolutional neural network(CNN) architecture is proposed for the effective detection of copy-move image forgery. The proposed architecture is computationally lightweight with a suitable number of convolutional and max-pooling layers. We also present a fast and accurate testing process with 0.83 seconds for every test. Many empirical experiments have been conducted to ensure the efficiency of the proposed model in terms of accuracy and time. These experiments were done on benchmark datasets and have achieved 100% accuracy.

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) plays a vital role in healthcare systems to increase electronic devices’ accuracy, reliability, and productivity. This paper presents fast multiple zero-watermarking methods based on Multi-channel Fractional Legendre Fourier moments (MFrLFMs) for medical image security and copyright protection in IoMT applications without deforming the original medical images. The MFrLFMs are utilized due to their high accuracy, numerical stability, geometric invariances, and high resistance to various attacks. Based on the most significant features generated from MFrLFMs, after scrambling using a two-dimensional Discrete Henon Map, then XORed with binary scrambled watermark to construct owner share. The proposed watermarking method is implemented using a low-cost Raspberry Pi Linux microprocessor, which ensures the suitability of medical devices in the IoMT environment. We evaluated the robustness of the proposed algorithm against different geometric and common signal processing attacks using various medical images. The proposed method gives better BER, NC, and SSIM values than existing methods.

COVID-19 is highly infectious and causes acute respiratory disease. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models are vital in detecting disease from computerized chest tomography (CT) scans. The DL models outperformed the ML models. For COVID-19 detection from CT scan images, DL models are used as end-to-end models. Thus, the performance of the model is evaluated for the quality of the extracted feature and classification accuracy. There are four contributions included in this work. First, this research is motivated by studying the quality of the extracted feature from the DL by feeding these extracted to an ML model. In other words, we proposed comparing the end-to-end DL model performance against the approach of using DL for feature extraction and ML for the classification of COVID-19 CT scan images. Second, we proposed studying the effect of fusing extracted features from image descriptors, e.g., Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), with extracted features from DL models. Third, we proposed a new Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to be trained from scratch and then compared to the deep transfer learning on the same classification problem. Finally, we studied the performance gap between classic ML models against ensemble learning models. The proposed framework is evaluated using a CT dataset, where the obtained results are evaluated using five different metrics The obtained results revealed that using the proposed CNN model is better than using the well-known DL model for the purpose of feature extraction. Moreover, using a DL model for feature extraction and an ML model for the classification task achieved better results in comparison to using an end-to-end DL model for detecting COVID-19 CT scan images. Of note, the accuracy rate of the former method improved by using ensemble learning models instead of the classic ML models. The proposed method achieved the best accuracy rate of 99.39%.

Background: In our current digital world, smartphones are no longer limited to communication but are used in various real-world applications. In the healthcare industry, smartphones have sensors that can record data about our daily activities. Such data can be used for many healthcare purposes, such as elderly healthcare services, early disease diagnoses, and archiving patient data for further use. However, the data collected from the various sensors involve high dimensional features, which are not equally helpful in human activity recognition (HAR). Methods: This paper proposes an algorithm for selecting the most relevant subset of features that will contribute efficiently to the HAR process. The proposed method is based on a hybrid version of the recent Coronavirus Disease Optimization Algorithm (COVIDOA) with Simulated Annealing (SA). SA algorithm is merged with COVIDOA to improve its performance and help escape the local optima problem. Results: The UCI-HAR dataset from the UCI machine learning repository assesses the proposed algorithm’s performance. A comparison is conducted with seven well-known feature selection algorithms, including the Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA), Gray Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), Reptile Search Algorithm (RSA), Zebra Optimization Algorithm (ZOA), Gradient-Based Optimizer (GBO), Seagull Optimization Algorithm (SOA), and Coyote Optimization Algorithm (COA) regarding fitness, STD, accuracy, size of selected subset, and processing time. Conclusions: The results proved that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art HAR techniques, achieving an average performance of 97.82% in accuracy and a reduction ratio in feature selection of 52.7%.

Because of the current COVID-19 circumstances in the world and the tremendous technological developments, it has become necessary to use this technology to combat the spread of the new coronavirus. The systems that depend on using hands, such as fingerprint systems and PINs in ATM systems, could lead to infection, so they have become undesirable and we can replace them by using facial recognition instead. With the development of technology and the availability of nano devices like the Raspberry Pi, such applications can be implemented easily. This study presents an efficient face recognition system in which the face image is taken by a standalone camera and then passed to the Raspberry Pi to extract the face features and then compare them with the database. This approach is named MORSCMs-LBP by combining two algorithms for feature extraction: Local Binary Pattern (LBP) as a local feature descriptor and radial substituted Chebyshev moments (MORSCMs) as a global feature descriptor. The significant advantage of this method is that it combines the local and global features into a single feature vector from the detected faces. The proposed approach MORSCMs-LBP has been implemented on the Raspberry Pi 4 computer model B with 1 GB of RAM using C++ OpenCV. We assessed our method on various benchmark datasets: face95 with an accuracy of 99.0278%, face96 with an accuracy of 99.4375%, and grimace with 100% accuracy. We evaluated the proposed MORSCMs-LBP technique against other recently published approaches; the comparison shows a significant improvement in favour of the proposed approach.

Cervical spine (CS) fractures or dislocations are medical emergencies that may lead to more serious consequences, such as significant functional disability, permanent paralysis, or even death. Therefore, diagnosing CS injuries should be conducted urgently without any delay. This paper proposes an accurate computer-aided-diagnosis system based on deep learning (AlexNet and GoogleNet) for classifying CS injuries as fractures or dislocations. The proposed system aims to support physicians in diagnosing CS injuries, especially in emergency services. We trained the model on a dataset containing 2009 X-ray images (530 CS dislocation, 772 CS fractures, and 707 normal images). The results show 99.56%, 99.33%, 99.67%, and 99.33% for accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and precision, respectively. Finally, the saliency map has been used to measure the spatial support of a specific class inside an image. This work targets both research and clinical purposes. The designed software could be installed on the imaging devices where the CS images are captured. Then, the captured CS image is used as an input image where the designed code makes a clinical decision in emergencies.

Recently, diagnosing diseases using medical images became crucial. As these images are transmitted through the network, they need a high level of protection. If the data in these images are liable for unauthorized usage, this may lead to severe problems. There are different methods for securing images. One of the most efficient techniques for securing medical images is encryption. Confusion and diffusion are the two main steps used in encryption algorithms. This paper presents a new encryption algorithm for encrypting both grey and color medical images. A new image splitting technique based on image blocks introduced. Then, the image blocks scrambled using a zigzag pattern, rotation, and random permutation. Then, a chaotic logistic map generates a key to diffuse the scrambled image. The efficiency of our proposed method in encrypting medical images is evaluated using security analysis and time complexity. The security is tested in entropy, histogram differential attacks, correlation coefficient, PSNR, keyspace, and sensitivity. The achieved results show a high-performance security level reached by successful encryption of both grey and color medical images. A comparison with various encryption methods is performed. The proposed encryption algorithm outperformed the recent existing encryption methods in encrypting medical images.

Robust watermarking is a valuable methodology used in protecting the copyright and securing digital images. In this paper, new fractional-order multi-channel orthogonal exponent moments (MFrEMs) and their invariants to geometric transformations are derived for the first time. We utilized these highly accurate moments to construct a new robust watermarking algorithm for color images. This algorithm consists of three phases. First, the bits of the binary watermark scrambled by using a 1D Sine chaotic map. Second, the fractional-order MFrEMs are calculated from the host color image. Finally, a quantization process is performed, where the scrambled bits of the binary watermark embedded into the host color image. Various experiments were conducted to test the proposed watermarking algorithm and compare it with the existing robust watermarking algorithms for color images. The obtained results ensure the proposed robust watermarking algorithm’s superiority over existing algorithms regarding the visual imperceptibility and robustness against various attacks.

Zero-watermarking methods provide promising solutions and impressive performance for copyright protection of images without changing the original images. In this paper, a novel zero-watermarking method for color images is envisioned. Our envisioned approach is based on multi-channel orthogonal Legendre Fourier moments of fractional orders, referred to as MFrLFMs. In this method, a highly precise Gaussian integration method is utilized to calculate MFrLFMs. Then, based on the selected accurate MFrLFMs moments, a zero-watermark is constructed. Due to their accuracy, geometric invariances, and numerical stability, the proposed MFrLFMs-based zero-watermarking method shows excellent resistance against various attacks. Performed experiments using the proposed watermarking method show the outperformance over existing watermarking algorithms.

Clustering algorithms have become one of the most critical research areas in multiple domains, especially data mining. However, with the massive growth of big data applications in the cloud world, these applications face many challenges and difficulties. Since Big Data refers to an enormous amount of data, most traditional clustering algorithms come with high computational costs. Hence, the research question is how to handle this volume of data and get accurate results at a critical time. Despite ongoing research work to develop different algorithms to facilitate complex clustering processes, there are still many difficulties that arise while dealing with a large volume of data. In this paper, we review the most relevant clustering algorithms in a categorized manner, provide a comparison of clustering methods for large-scale data and explain the overall challenges based on clustering type. The key idea of the paper is to highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of clustering algorithms for dealing with big data in a scalable approach behind the different other features.

Orthogonal moments are used to represent digital images with minimum redundancy. Orthogonal moments with fractional-orders show better capabilities in digital image analysis than integer-order moments. In this work, the authors present new fractional-order shifted Gegenbauer polynomials. These new polynomials are used to define a novel set of orthogonal fractional-order shifted Gegenbauer moments (FrSGMs). The proposed method is applied in gray-scale image analysis and recognition. The invariances to rotation, scaling and translation (RST), are achieved using invariant fractional-order geometric moments. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed FrSGMs and compare with the classical orthogonal integer-order Gegenbauer moments (GMs) and the existing orthogonal fractional-order moments. The new FrSGMs outperformed GMs and the existing orthogonal fractional-order moments in terms of image recognition and reconstruction, RST invariance, and robustness to noise.

The classical radial harmonic Fourier moments (RHFMs) and the quaternion radial harmonic Fourier moments (QRHFMs) are gray-scale and color image descriptors. The radial harmonic functions with integer orders are not able to extract fine features from the input images. In this paper, the authors derived novel fractional-order radial harmonic functions in polar coordinates. The obtained functions are used to defined novel multi-channel fractional-order radial harmonic moments (FrMRHFMs) for color image description and analysis. The invariants to geometric transformations for these new moments are derived. A theoretical comparison between FrMRHFMs and QRHFMs is performed from the aspects of kernel function and the spectrum analysis. Numerical simulation is carried out to test these new moments in terms of image reconstruction capabilities, invariance to the similarity transformations, color image recognition and the CPU computational times. The obtained theoretical and numerical results clearly show that the proposed FrMRHFMs is superior to the QRHFMs and the existing fractional-order orthogonal moments.

The ability of any retrieval system to extract features by using its feature descriptor is the primary criterion to measure its efficiency. In this paper a novel technique for feature extraction of biomedical images is presented. The mooted system uses the Radial Associated Laguerre Moments (RALMs) as a feature descriptor to obtain features from two types of medical images: computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance images (MRI). RALMs represent one sort of discrete orthogonal moments. RALMs extract the features from images using orthogonal moments to retrieve images from a database. Our approach is extensively assessed with noise-free and noisy images from three different benchmark databases: Emphysema-CT, NEMA CT, and NEMA MRI. The first two databases are used for CT image retrieval, while the third is for MR image retrieval. The proposed approach was tested against the state-of-the art local feature descriptors: Local Binary Pattern (LBP), and local diagonal extrema pattern (LDEP). It was also evaluated against orthogonal Fourier-Mellin moments (OFMMs) as a global descriptor. The comparison shows a significant improvement in favor of the proposed approach in terms of three different performance metrics: ARP, ARR, and F_score. The proposed approach was also compared against the convolutional neural network (CNN) as a deep learning based method over the NEMA-MRI dataset. The RALMs based approach showed a significant improvement when compared against two state-of-the-art medical image retrieval approaches: Histogram of Compressed Scattering Coefficients (HCSCs) and a local bit-plane decoding-based AlexNet descriptor (LBpDAD), the study has done over the TCIA-CT dataset. The proposed approach was also tested with big well-known dataset from the international skin imaging collaboration (ISIC) 2018.

Masses are mammographic nonpalpable signs of breast cancer. These masses could be detected using screening mammography. This paper proposed a system utilizing orthogonal moment invariants (OMIs) features for mammographic masses detection and diagnosis. In this work, three sets of OMIs features were extracted. These OMIs features are Gaussian-Hermite moments (GHMs), Gegenbauer moments (GeMs), and Legendre moments (LMs). The extracted features are fused and presented to the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for feature selection. The classification step is achieved using the support vector machine (SVM). The proposed system is evaluated using 400 regions, extracted from the DDSM dataset. The obtained results reveal the promising application of OMIs features for masses detection and identification. It shows that fusing the OMIs features produces an acceptable detection performance where the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve is $Az=0.969\pm 0.01$ and the best performance of OMIs features is $Az = 0.856\pm 0.053$ for characterizing the malignancy of masses.

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer with a high mortality rate. The different types of skin lesions result in an inaccurate diagnosis due to their high similarity. Accurate classification of the skin lesions in their early stages enables dermatologists to treat the patients and save their lives. This paper proposes a model for a highly accurate classification of skin lesions. The proposed model utilized the transfer learning and pre-trained model with GoogleNet. The model parameters are used as initial values, and then these parameters will be modified through training. The latest well-known public challenge dataset, ISIC 2019, is used to test the ability of the proposed model to classify different kinds of skin lesions. The proposed model successfully classified the eight different classes of skin lesions, namely, melanoma, melanocytic nevus, basal cell carcinoma, actinic keratosis, benign keratosis, dermatofibroma, vascular lesion, and Squamous cell carcinoma. The achieved classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and precision percentages are 94.92%, 79.8%, 97%, and 80.36%, respectively. The proposed model can detect images that do not belong to any one of the eight classes where these images are classified as unknown images.

Recently, digital images have been considered the primary key for many applications, such as forensics, medical diagnosis, and social networks. Image forgery detection is considered one of the most complex digital image applications. More profoundly, image splicing was investigated as one of the common types of image forgery. As a result, we proposed a convolutional neural network (CNN) model for detecting splicing forged images in real-time and with high accuracy, with a small number of parameters as compared with the recently published approaches. The presented model is a lightweight model with only four convolutional layers and four max-pooling layers, which is suitable for most environments that have limitations in their resources. A detailed comparison was conducted between the proposed model and the other investigated models. The sensitivity and specificity of the proposed model over CASIA 1.0, CASIA 2.0, and CUISDE datasets are determined. The proposed model achieved an accuracy of 99.1% in detecting forgery on the CASIA 1.0 dataset, 99.3% in detecting forgery on the CASIA 2.0 dataset, and 100% in detecting forgery on the CUISDE dataset. The proposed model achieved high accuracy, with a small number of parameters. Therefore, specialists can use the proposed approach as an automated tool for real-time forged image detection.

Volumetric images have a three-dimensional (3D) view, in which viewers can examine their characteristics from any angle. The more accurate the digital representation of volumetric images, the more precise and valuable the assessment of what these images represent. The representation of volumetric images is a significant area of study in pattern recognition and computer vision. Recently, volumetric image analysis using orthogonal moments with fractional order has opened up a new study pathway, which has led scholars to discover many real-life applications through investigating efficient algorithms to represent the features of 3D images. In this study, a new set of 3D shifted fractional-order Gegenbauer moments (FrGMs) for volumetric image representation is proposed. First, a mathematical description of the shifted Gegenbauer moments for 3D images is presented. Second, a fast, highly accurate method for calculating the fractional-order shifted Gegenbauer moments of 3D images is introduced. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed FrGMs is evaluated through various suitable experiments and compared with existing methods in terms of the reconstruction of 3D images, the invariability property, sensitivity to noise, and computation time. The experimental results clearly show that FrGMs outperform existing related algorithms.

The number of diabetic patients is increasing yearly worldwide, requiring the need for a quick intervention to help these people. Mortality rates are higher for diabetic patients with other serious health complications. Thus, early prediction for such diseases positively impacts healthcare quality and can prevent serious health complications later. This paper constructs an efficient prediction system for predicting diabetes in its early stage. The proposed system starts with a Local Outlier Factor (LOF)-based outlier detection technique to detect outlier data. A Balanced Bagging Classifier (BBC) technique is used to balance data distribution. Finally, integration between association rules and classification algorithms is used to develop a prediction model based on real data. Four classification algorithms were utilized in addition to an a priori algorithm that discovered relationships between various factors. The named algorithms are Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Decision Trees (DT), Support Vector Machines (SVM), and K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) for data classification. Results revealed that KNN provided the highest accuracy of 97.36% compared to the other applied algorithms. An a priori algorithm extracted association rules based on the Lift matrix. Four association rules from 12 attributes with the highest correlation and information gain scores relative to the class attribute were produced.

Mobile capability development increases with the need to use it. However, mobile devices still lack computational resources. Mobile cloud computing is the solution to overcome these challenges. Extensive research has been conducted to solve these problems, and a large number of new techniques were developed. Many of these researches solve the resource problem by partitioning and offloading applications to the cloud to tap its full computational and storage availability. Other methods involve offloading part of the applications while retaining the rest for processing on the smartphone — the decision making in these techniques based on metrics such as power and CPU consumption. Also, small numbers of available solutions consider security issues. This paper proposed a new elastic framework named secure framework for mobile capabilities augmentation using cloud computing (SMCACC) that enables transparent use of cloud resources to augment the capabilities of resource-constrained mobile devices. A significant feature of this framework is the partition of a single application into multiple components. Mobile apps can be executed on the mobile device itself or offloaded to the cloud clone for execution. Thus, the elastic application can augment the capabilities of a mobile device to save energy for a mobile device. Besides, a hybrid cryptography method is used to secure data and take energy consumption in the considerations. The new proposed security protocols use a combination of both symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic techniques to avoids the disadvantages of the existing hybrid protocols. These methods help to protect users by securing data that offloaded to the cloud. The results of this framework without security show the resources consumed for executing the application on mobile and cloud are decreased approximately to half of the memory consumed for running app on the mobile-only. According to the security framework, the resources consumed for executing the application on mobile still decreased.

Digital images are transferred with ease through the network. Many users are using the images without the knowledge of the owners. Therefore, a novel watermarking scheme is proposed to ensure copyright protection and authentication of images using cryptography techniques. Here, a quick response (QR) image is generated for a watermark image that contains public and private keys prepared using a cryptosystem. Later, this QR image is scrambled using a chaotic logistic map. The public and private keys are used to cipher and decipher the data. Next, the scrambled QR watermark is embedded into a color image using a single-level discrete wavelet transform followed by singular value decomposition using the key value. Finally, the inverse process is applied to extract the watermark. The proposed method is validated using various image processing attacks. The results are then compared with state-of-the-art watermarking schemes. The experimental results show that the scheme provides good results in terms of robustness and imperceptibility.

Copyright protection of medical images is a vital goal in the era of smart healthcare systems. In recent telemedicine applications, medical images are sensed using medical imaging devices and transmitted to remote places for screening by physicians and specialists. During their transmission, the medical images could be tampered with by intruders. Traditional watermarking methods embed the information in the host images to protect the copyright of medical images. The embedding destroys the original image and cannot be applied efficiently to images used in medicine that require high integrity. Robust zero-watermarking methods are preferable over other watermarking algorithms in medical image security due to their outstanding performance. Most existing methods are presented based on moments and moment invariants, which have become a prominent method for zero-watermarking due to their favorable image description capabilities and geometric invariance. Although moment-based zero-watermarking can be an effective approach to image copyright protection, several present approaches cannot effectively resist geometric attacks, and others have a low resistance to large-scale attacks. Besides these issues, most of these algorithms rely on traditional moment computation, which suffers from numerical error accumulation, leading to numerical instabilities, and time consumption and affecting the performance of these moment-based zero-watermarking techniques. In this paper, we derived multi-channel Gaussian–Hermite moments of fractional-order (MFrGHMs) to solve the problems. Then we used a kernel-based method for the highly accurate computation of MFrGHMs to solve the computation issue. Then, we constructed image features that are accurate and robust. Finally, we presented a new zero-watermarking scheme for color medical images using accurate MFrGHMs and 1D Chebyshev chaotic features to achieve lossless copyright protection of the color medical images. We performed experiments where their outcomes ensure the robustness of the proposed zero-watermarking algorithms against various attacks. The proposed zero-watermarking algorithm achieves a good balance between robustness and imperceptibility. Compared with similar existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm has superior robustness, security, and time computation.

Securing medical images are a very essential process in medical image authentication. Medical image watermarking is a very popular tool to achieve this goal. In this paper, an extremely fast, highly accurate, and robust algorithm is proposed for watermarking both gray-level and color medical images. In the proposed method, a scrambled binary watermark is embedded in the host medical image. Simplified exact kernels are used to compute the moments of the polar complex exponential transform (PCET) for the host gray-level images and the moments of the quaternion PCET for the host color images without approximation errors. The stability of the computed moments enables us to use higher order moments in a perfect reconstruction of the watermarked medical images. The accurate moment invariant to rotation, scaling, and translation ensures the robustness of the proposed watermarking algorithm against geometric attacks. Performed experiments clearly show very high visual imperceptibility and robustness to different levels of geometric distortions and common signal processing attacks. The implementation of parallel multi-core CPU and GPU result in a tremendous reduction of the overall watermarking times. For a color image of size 256 × 256, the watermarking time is accelerated by 20× and 11× using a GPU and a CPU with 16 cores, respectively.

This paper proposes a new blind, color image watermarking method using fast Walsh–Hadamard transformation (FWHT) and multi-channel fractional Legendre–Fourier moments (MFrLFMs). The input host color image is first split into 4 × 4 non-interfering blocks, and the MFrLFMs are computed for each block, where proper MFrLFMs coefficients are selected and FWHT is applied on the selected coefficients. The scrambled binary watermark has been inserted in the quantized selected MFrLFMs coefficients. The proposed method is a blind extraction, as the original host image is not required to extract the watermark. The proposed method is evaluated over many visual imperceptibility terms such as peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), normalized correlation (NC), and bit error rate. The robustness of the proposed method is tested over several geometrical attacks such as scaling, rotation, cropping, and translation with different parameter values. The most widely recognized image processing attacks are also considered, e.g., compressing and adding noise attacks. A set of combination attacks are also tested to analyze the robustness of the proposed scheme versus several attacks. The proposed model’s experimental and numerical results for invisibility and robustness were superior to the results of similar watermarking methods.

Computer-aided systems for skin lesion diagnosis is a growing area of research. Recently, researchers have shown an increasing interest in developing computer-aided diagnosis systems. This paper aims to review, synthesize and evaluate the quality of evidence for the diagnostic accuracy of computer-aided systems. This study discusses the papers published in the last five years in ScienceDirect, IEEE, and SpringerLink databases. It includes 53 articles using traditional machine learning methods and 49 articles using deep learning methods. The studies are compared based on their contributions, the methods used and the achieved results. The work identified the main challenges of evaluating skin lesion segmentation and classification methods such as small datasets, ad hoc image selection and racial bias.