The STROBE protocol framework

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) promises ubiquitous, cheap, connected devices. Unfortunately, most of these devices are hastily developed and will never receive code updates. Part of the IoT’s security problem is cryptographic, but established cryptographic solutions seem too heavy or too inflexible to adapt to new use cases. Here we describe Strobe, a new lightweight framework for building both cryptographic primitives and network protocols. Strobe is a sponge construction in the same family as Markku Saarinen’s BLINKER framework. The Strobe framework is simple and extensible. It is suitable for use as a hash, authenticated cipher, pseudorandom generator, and as the symmetric component of a network protocol engine. With an elliptic curve or other group primitive, it also provides a flexible Schnorr signature variant. Strobe can be instantiated with different sponge functions for different purposes. We show how to instantiate Strobe as an instance of NIST’s draft cSHAKE algorithm. We also show a lightweight implementation which is especially suitable for 16- and 32- bit microcontrollers, and also for small but high-speed hardware

The STROBE extensions: protocol for a qualitative assessment of content and a survey of endorsement

Introduction The STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement was developed in response to inadequate reporting of observational studies. In recent years, several extensions to STROBE have been created to provide more nuanced field-specific guidance for authors. The content and the prevalence of extension endorsement have not yet been assessed. Accordingly, there are two aims: (1) to classify changes made in the extensions to identify strengths and weaknesses of the original STROBE checklist and (2) to determine the prevalence and typology of endorsement by journals in fields related to extensions. Methods and analysis Two independent researchers will assess additions in each extension. Additions will be coded as â field specific' (FS) or â not field specific' (NFS). FS is defined as particularly relevant information for a single field and guidance provided generally cannot be extrapolated beyond that field. NFS is defined as information that reflects epidemiological or methodological tenets and can be generalised to most, if not all, types of observational research studies. Intraclass correlation will be calculated to measure reviewers' concordance. On disagreement, consensus will be sought. Individual additions will be grouped by STROBE checklist items to identify the frequency and distribution of changes. Journals in fields related to extensions will be identified through National Library of Medicine PubMed Broad Subject Terms, screened for eligibility and further distilled via Ovid MEDLINE® search strategies for observational studies. Text describing endorsement will be extracted from each journal's website. A classification scheme will be created for endorsement types and the prevalence of endorsement will be estimated. Analyses will use NVivo V.11 and SAS University Edition. Ethics and dissemination This study does not require ethical approval as it does not involve human participants. This study has been preregistered on Open Science Framework.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The Macrame 1024 node switching network

The work reported involves the construction of a large modular testbed using IEEE 1355 DS link technology. A thousand nodes will be interconnected by a switching fabric based on the STC104 packet switch. The system has been designed and constructed in a modular way in order to allow a variety of different network topologies to be investigated. Network throughput and latency have been studied for different network topologies under various traffic conditions

TIDieR-PHP: a reporting guideline for population health and policy interventions

We lack guidance on how to describe population health and policy (PHP) interventions in reports of evaluation studies. PHP interventions are legal, fiscal, structural, organisational, environmental, and policy interventions such as the regulation of unhealthy commodities, health service reorganisation, changes in welfare policy, and neighbourhood improvement schemes. Many PHP interventions have characteristics that are important for their implementation and success but are not adequately captured in the original Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist. This article describes the development of a revised reporting template for PHP interventions (TIDieR-PHP) and presents the checklist with examples for each ite

Zooming Into Radio Events by Bus Snooping

In this position paper, we advocate the use of bus snooping to trace radio events. Highly precise and unintrusive, the technique leads to potentially more efficient code and enables more insightful protocol analysis than conventional code instrumentation techniques

An ontology to standardize research output of nutritional epidemiology : from paper-based standards to linked content

Background: The use of linked data in the Semantic Web is a promising approach to add value to nutrition research. An ontology, which defines the logical relationships between well-defined taxonomic terms, enables linking and harmonizing research output. To enable the description of domain-specific output in nutritional epidemiology, we propose the Ontology for Nutritional Epidemiology (ONE) according to authoritative guidance for nutritional epidemiology. Methods: Firstly, a scoping review was conducted to identify existing ontology terms for reuse in ONE. Secondly, existing data standards and reporting guidelines for nutritional epidemiology were converted into an ontology. The terms used in the standards were summarized and listed separately in a taxonomic hierarchy. Thirdly, the ontologies of the nutritional epidemiologic standards, reporting guidelines, and the core concepts were gathered in ONE. Three case studies were included to illustrate potential applications: (i) annotation of existing manuscripts and data, (ii) ontology-based inference, and (iii) estimation of reporting completeness in a sample of nine manuscripts. Results: Ontologies for food and nutrition (n = 37), disease and specific population (n = 100), data description (n = 21), research description (n = 35), and supplementary (meta) data description (n = 44) were reviewed and listed. ONE consists of 339 classes: 79 new classes to describe data and 24 new classes to describe the content of manuscripts. Conclusion: ONE is a resource to automate data integration, searching, and browsing, and can be used to assess reporting completeness in nutritional epidemiology

Protocol for development of the guideline for reporting evidence based practice educational interventions and teaching (GREET) statement

BACKGROUND: There are an increasing number of studies reporting the efficacy of educational strategies to facilitate the development of knowledge and skills underpinning evidence based practice (EBP). To date there is no standardised guideline for describing the teaching, evaluation, context or content of EBP educational strategies. The heterogeneity in the reporting of EBP educational interventions makes comparisons between studies difficult. The aim of this program of research is to develop the Guideline for Reporting EBP Educational interventions and Teaching (GREET) statement and an accompanying explanation and elaboration (E&E) paper. METHODS/DESIGN: Three stages are planned for the development process. Stage one will comprise a systematic review to identify features commonly reported in descriptions of EBP educational interventions. In stage two, corresponding authors of articles included in the systematic review and the editors of the journals in which these studies were published will be invited to participate in a Delphi process to reach consensus on items to be considered when reporting EBP educational interventions. The final stage of the project will include the development and pilot testing of the GREET statement and E&E paper. OUTCOME: The final outcome will be the creation of a Guideline for Reporting EBP Educational interventions and Teaching (GREET) statement and E&E paper. DISCUSSION: The reporting of health research including EBP educational research interventions, have been criticised for a lack of transparency and completeness. The development of the GREET statement will enable the standardised reporting of EBP educational research. This will provide a guide for researchers, reviewers and publishers for reporting EBP educational interventions

CSP channels for CAN-bus connected embedded control systems

Closed loop control system typically contains multitude of sensors and actuators operated simultaneously. So they are parallel and distributed in its essence. But when mapping this parallelism to software, lot of obstacles concerning multithreading communication and synchronization issues arise. To overcome this problem, the CT kernel/library based on CSP algebra has been developed. This project (TES.5410) is about developing communication extension to the CT library to make it applicable in distributed systems. Since the library is tailored for control systems, properties and requirements of control systems are taken into special consideration. Applicability of existing middleware solutions is examined. A comparison of applicable fieldbus protocols is done in order to determine most suitable ones and CAN fieldbus is chosen to be first fieldbus used. Brief overview of CSP and existing CSP based libraries is given. Middleware architecture is proposed along with few novel ideas

A systematic review investigating fatigue, psychological and cognitive impairment following TIA and minor stroke:protocol paper

Approximately 20,000 people have a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and 23,375 have a minor stroke in England each year. Fatigue, psychological and cognitive impairments are well documented post-stroke. Evidence suggests that TIA and minor stroke patients also experience these impairments; however, they are not routinely offered relevant treatment. This systematic review aims to: (1) establish the prevalence of fatigue, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cognitive impairment following TIA and minor stroke and to investigate the temporal course of these impairments; (2) explore impact on quality of life (QoL), change in emotions and return to work; (3) identify where further research is required and to potentially inform an intervention study