Design and Validation of a Reduced Switching Components Step-Up Multilevel Inverter (RSCS-MLI)

A reduced switching components step-up multilevel inverter (RSCS-MLI) is presented in the paper. The basic circuit of the proposed MLI can produce 11 levels in the output voltage with a reduced number of switching components. The other features of the proposed circuit include a low value of voltage stresses and the inherent generation of the voltage levels pertaining to the negative half without the requirement of an H-bridge. Fundamental frequency switching technique, also known as Nearest Level Control (NLC) technique, is implemented in the proposed topology for generating the switching signals. The experimental total harmonic distortion (THD) in the output voltage comes out to be 9.4% for modulation index equal to 1. Based on different parameters, a comparative study has been shown in the paper, which makes the claim of the proposed MLI stronger. An experimental setup is prepared to carry out the hardware implementation of the proposed structure and monitor its performance under dynamic load conditions, which is also used to verify the simulation results. Power loss analysis, carried out by using PLECS software, helps us to gain insight into different losses occurring while operating the inverter. The different results are explained and analyzed in the paper.</jats:p

An Efficient, Hybrid Authentication using ECG and Lightweight Cryptographic Scheme for WBAN

The Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) plays a pivotal role in providing ubiquitous computing and has applications in different fields, especially in health monitoring. The advancement in wearable devices has revolutionized the concept of medical services and brought ease to our daily lives. However, the latent threat imposed by attackers has increased concerns related to the security and privacy of patient&#x2019;s data due to the open nature of the wireless network. The authentication schemes are used to secure patient&#x2019;s critical data from different types of cyber-attacks. In this paper, we extend our previous work by presenting an anonymous, hybrid authentication scheme that utilized physiological signals in combination with a lightweight cryptographic method to provide robust security against well-known attacks especially key escrow, base station compromise, and untraceability of sessions. The broadly accepted BAN logic is utilized to offer formal proof of mutual authentication and key agreement. The informal verification is performed by the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocol and Applications (AVISPA) tool. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the proposed scheme with peer work highlighted that it accomplished better security at low computational, communicational, energy consumption, and storage overheads

The use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in healthcare with a focus on hospitals

The healthcare sector in general and hospitals in particular represent a main application area for Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This paper reviews 262 papers of DEA applications in healthcare with special focus on hospitals and therefore closes a gap of over ten years that were not covered by existing review articles. Apart from providing descriptive statistics of the papers, we are the first to examine the research purposes of the publications. These research goals can be grouped into four distinct clusters according to our proposed framework. The four clusters are (1) Pure DEA efficiency analysis, i.e. performing a DEA on hospital data, (2) Developments or applications of new methodologies, i.e. applying new DEAy approaches on hospital data, (3) Specific management question, i.e. analyzing the effects of managerial specification, such as ownership, on hospital efficiency, and (4) Surveys on the effects of reforms, i.e. researching the impact of policy making, such as reforms of health systems, on hospital efficiency. Furthermore, we analyze the methodological settings of the studies and describe the applied models. We analyze the chosen inputs and outputs as well as all relevant downstream techniques. A further contribution of this paper is its function as a roadmap to important methodological literature and publications, which provide crucial information on the setup of DEA studies. Thus, this paper should be of assistance to researchers planning to apply DEA in a hospital setting by providing information on a) what has been published between 2005 and 2016, b) possible pitfalls when setting up a DEA analysis, and c) possible ways to apply the DEA analysis in practice. Finally, we discuss what could be done to advance DEA from a scientific tool to an instrument that is actually utilized by managers and policymakers