A Mechanism for Securing IoT-enabled Applications at the Fog Layer

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm branded by heterogeneous technologies composed of smart ubiquitous objects that are seamlessly connected to the Internet. These objects are deployed as Low power and Lossy Networks (LLN) to provide innovative services in various application domains, such as smart cities, smart health, smart communities. The LLN is a form of a network where the interconnected devices are highly resource-constrained (i.e., power, memory, and processing) and characterized by high loss rates, low data rates and instability in the communication links. Additionally, IoT devices produce a massive amount of confidential and security-sensitive data. Various cryptographic-based techniques exist that can effectively cope with security attacks, but are not suitable for IoT as they incur high consumption of resources (i.e., memory, storage and processing). One way to address this problem is by offloading the additional security-related operations to a more resourceful entity such as a fog-based node. Generally, fog computing enables security and analysis of latency-sensitive data directly at the network’s edge. This paper proposes a novel Fog Security Service (FSS) to provide end-to-end security at fog layer for IoT devices, using two well-established cryptographic schemes, identity-based encryption and identity-based signature. The FSS provides security services, such as authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. The proposed architecture is implemented and evaluated in OPNET simulator using a single network topology with different traffic loads. The FSS performed better when compared with the APaaS and the legacy method

Meaningful Information Extraction from Unstructured Clinical Documents

Medical concept and entity extraction from the medical narrative unstructured documents is the crucial step in most of the contemporary health systems. For the extraction of medical concepts and entities, the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus is a big source of biomedical and health-related concepts. Recently various tools like Sophia, MetaMap and cTAKES, and many other rules-based methods and algorithm like Quick UMLS etc. have been developed which are performing a successful role in the process of medical concept extraction. The goal of this paper is to design a generic algorithm to identify a package consisting of standard concepts, their semantic types, and entity types on the basis of medical phrases and terms used in the clinical unstructured documents. The proposed algorithm implements the UMLS terminology service (UTS) and customizes to extract concepts for all the meaningful phrases and terms used in the narratives and determine their semantic and entity types in order to find exact categorization of the concepts. The proposed algorithm has produced a very useful set of results to use for labeling the biomedical data, which could in term be used for training data-driven approaches such asmachine learning

Evaluating Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 Data Consistency for High Spatiotemporal Inland and Coastal Water Quality Monitoring

The synergy of fine-to-moderate-resolutin (i.e., 10–60 m) satellite data of the Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) provides a possibility to monitor the dynamics of sensitive aquatic systems. However, it is imperative to assess the spectral consistency of both sensors before developing new algorithms for their combined use. This study evaluates spectral consistency between OLI and MSI-A/B, mainly in terms of the topof-atmosphere reflectance (ρt), Rayleigh-corrected reflectance (ρrc), and remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs). To check the spectral consistency under various atmospheric and aquatic conditions, nearsimultaneous same-day overpass images of OLI and MSI-A/B were selected over diverse coastal and inland areas across Mainland China and Hong Kong. The results showed that spectral data obtained from OLI and MSI-A/B were consistent. The difference in the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the OLI and MSI-A products was ~8% in ρt and ~10% in both ρrc and Rrs for all the matching bands, whereas the MAPE for OLI and MSI-B was ~3.7% in ρt , ~5.7% in ρrc, and ~7.5% in Rrs for all visible bands except the ultra-blue band. Overall, the green band was the most consistent, with the lowest MAPE of ≤ 4.6% in all the products. The linear regression model suggested that product difference decreased significantly after band adjustment with the highest reduction rate in Rrs (NIR band) and Rrs (red band) for the OLI–MSI-A and OLI–MSI-B comparison, respectively. Further, this study discussed the combined use of OLI and MSI-A/B data for (i) time series of the total suspended solid concentrations (TSS) over coastal and inland waters; (ii) floating algae area comparison; and (iii) tracking changes in coastal floating algae (FA). Time series analysis of the TSS showed that seasonal variation was well-captured by the combined use of sensors. The analysis of the floating algae bloom area revealed that the algae area was consistent, however, the difference increases as the time difference between the same-day overpasses increases. Furthermore, tracking changes in coastal FA over two months showed that thin algal slicks (width < 500 m) can be detected with an adequate spatial resolution of the OLI and the MSI

Ceramic Filled Polymer Matrix Composite Used For Bio-Medical Application

Synthetic polymers such as polyurethane are used widely in the field of biomedical applications such as implants or part of implant systems. This work focuses on the preparation of base polymer matrix composite materials by (Hand Lay-Up) method ,and studying the effect of selected weight fractions (3 , 6 , 9 , 12 ,15) % wt of Calcium oxide (CaO) , Calcium carbonate (CaCO3), Magnesium oxide (MgO) ,and Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) particles on some properties of the prepared composite. Some mechanical tests were used to evaluate the prepared system (Tensile, Compression, Impact, and Hardness) tests, and a physical test of (Water absorption %), and all tests were accomplished at room temperature. maximum results of tensile strength, compression strength, impact energy, hardness, water absorption were ( (31 MPa),( 51 MPa),( o.265 J), (79.8 Shor (D)), (0.229 %)) at using ( (9% wt (MgCO3)) , ( 9% wt of (MgCO3)) , ( 9% wt of (CaCO3)) , ( 15% wt of (MgO)) , ( 15% wt of (MgCO3)) respectivel

Prevalences of giardia lamblia and cryptosporidium parvum infection in adults presenting with chronic diarrhoea

iardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium parvum are both waterborne pathogens associated with diarrhoea in developing countries. In a recent study based at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, 334 adults aged 16–83 years (178 patients with chronic diarrhoea and 156 diarrhoea-free volunteers who acted as controls) were checked for infection with these parasites, using stool microscopy and/or PCR. Overall, 21 (6.3%) and 29 (8.7%) of the subjects were found positive for G. lamblia by microscopy and PCR, respectively, while the corresponding values for C. parvum were 13 (3.9%) and 14 (4.2%). Although, compared with the diarrhoea-free controls, the patients with diarrhoea were not significantly more likely to be found infected with Giardia, either by microscopy [15 (8.4%) v. six (3.8%); P=0.085] or PCR [19 (10.7%) v. 10 (6.4%); P=0.167], they were significantly more likely to be found infected with C. parvum, both by microscopy [11 (6.2%) v. two (1.3%); P=0.024] and by PCR [12 (6.7%) v. two (1.3%); P=0.014]. The 19 patients found PCR-positive for Giardia comprised 10 (67%) of the 15 found smear-positive for the same parasite but only nine (5%) of the 163 found smear-negative (k=0.545; PCryptosporidium comprised all 11 (100%) patients found smear-positive for the same parasite but only one (0.6%) of the 167 found smear-negative (k=0.954; P\u3c0.001). Although C. parvum was associated with chronic diarrhoea in the present study, the carriage of G. lamblia often appeared asymptomatic

Seed Treatment of Capsicum annuum with Two Different Fungicides to Evaluate the Seed Germination Rate

Chili (Capsicum annuum L.) is the fruit of plants, the Chili is susceptible for several diseases and seed borne fungi Phytophthora capsici which produces collar rot and root of chili. Seed borne pathogens are associated with untreated seeds of chili which are also significantly reduced the germination of seed. This experiment was conducted to find out the seed borne fungi and enhanced the germination of chili (Capsicum annuum) with two fungicides known as Mancozeb 80% WP and Carbendazim 50% WP. Effectiveness of these two fungicides were measured when the seeds planted on blotter paper in petri plates at 270C under lab conditions. These two fungicides significantly reduce the effect of seed borne fungi associated with chili seeds. Mancozeb 80% WP was found most effective to reduce the effect of seed borne fungi and increase the seed germination. Considering the results of the experiment, Mancozeb 80% WP was noted to be a best fungicide against the seed borne fungi. Keywords: Capsicum annuum, Mancozeb, Carbendazim, seed borne fungi, blotter paper. DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-4-04 Publication date: February 29th 2020

ZnO Nano-Flowers Assembled on Carbon Fiber Textile for High-Performance Supercapacitor’s Electrode

Herein, a crystalline nano-flowers structured zinc oxide (ZnO) was directly grown on carbon fiber textile (CFT) substrate via a simple hydrothermal process and fabricated with a binder-free electrode (denoted as ZnO@CFT) for supercapacitor (SC) utilization. The ZnO@CFT electrode revealed a 201 F·g−1 specific capacitance at 1 A·g−1 with admirable stability of >90% maintained after 3000 cycles at 10 A·g−1. These impressive findings are responsible for the exceedingly open channels for well-organized and efficient diffusion of effective electrolytic conduction via ZnO and CFT. Consequently, accurate and consistent structural and morphological manufacturing engineering is well regarded when increasing electrode materials’ effective surface area and intrinsic electrical conduction capability. The crystalline structure of ZnO nano-flowers could pave the way for low-cost supercapacitors