Biometric behavior authentication exploiting propagation characteristics of wireless channel

Massive expansion of wireless body area networks (WBANs) in the field of health monitoring applications has given rise to the generation of huge amount of biomedical data. Ensuring privacy and security of this very personal data serves as a major hurdle in the development of these systems. An effective and energy friendly authentication algorithm is, therefore, a necessary requirement for current WBANs. Conventional authentication algorithms are often implemented on higher levels of the Open System Interconnection model and require advanced software or major hardware upgradation. This paper investigates the implementation of a physical layer security algorithm as an alternative. The algorithm is based on the behavior fingerprint developed using the wireless channel characteristics. The usability of the algorithm is established through experimental results, which show that this authentication method is not only effective, but also very suitable for the energy-, resource-, and interface-limited WBAN medical applications

Building First‑Year Medical Students’ Skills in Finding, Evaluating, and Visualizing Health Information Through a “Debunking Medical Myths” Curricular Module

To provide an online service learning opportunity for medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical faculty and librarians developed and implemented a “Debunking Medical Myths” module in which students learned to search for emerging medical literature, evaluate evidence, and use that evidence to create an infographics debunking a COVID-19-related myth for a non-medical audience. The resultant infographics are visually appealing and designed to make complex health information easy to understand. The module was well-received by students, who demonstrated a nuanced understanding of the use of infographics to convey health information, and students’ work was evaluated highly by community members

Double threshold authentication using body area radio channel characteristics

The demand of portable and body-worn devices for remote health monitoring is ever increasing. One of the major challenges caused by this influx of wireless body area network (WBAN) devices is security of user's extremely vital and personal information. Conventional authentication techniques implemented at upper layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model usually consumes huge amount of power. They also require significant changes at hardware and software levels. It makes them unsuitable for inherently low powered WBAN devices. This letter investigates the usability of a double threshold algorithm as a physical layer security measure in these scenarios. The algorithm is based on the user's behavioral fingerprint extracted from the radio channel characteristics. Effectiveness of this technique is established through experimental measurements considering a variety of common usage scenarios. The results show that this method provides high level of security against false authentication attacks and has great potential in WBANs

Antenna and Propagation Considerations for Amateur UAV Monitoring

The broad application spectrum of unmanned aerial vehicles is making them one of the most promising technologies of Internet of Things era. Proactive prevention for public safety threats is one of the key areas with vast potential of surveillance and monitoring drones. Antennas play a vital role in such applications to establish reliable communication in these scenarios. This paper considers line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight threat scenarios with the perspective of antennas and electromagnetic wave propagation

Sleep apnea syndrome sensing at C-Band

A non-intrusive sleep apnea detection system using a C-Band channel sensing technique is proposed to monitor sleep apnea syndrome in real time. The system utilizes perturbations of RF signals to differentiate between patient's breathing under normal and sleep apnea conditions. The peak distance calculation is used to obtain the respiratory rates. A comparison of the datasets generated by the proposed method and a wearable sensor is made using a concordance correlation coefficient to establish its accuracy. The results show that the proposed sensing technique exhibits high accuracy and robustness, with more than 80% concordance with the wearable breathing sensor. This method is, therefore, a good candidate for the real-time wireless detection of sleep apnea

Effects on egg production and quality of supplementing drinking water with calcium and magnesium

This study was conducted to appraise the effects on egg quality and production performance of laying hens when drinking water was supplemented with calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). A total of 384 (64-week-old) Hy-line Brown laying hens were assigned at random to four treatments, which consisted of CON: unsupplemented drinking water; T1: drinking water + 2 mg/L Ca + 250 mg/L Mg; T2: drinking water + 4 mg/L Ca + 510 mg/L Mg /10 L; and T3: drinking water + 5 mg/L Ca and 760 mg/L Mg. The experiment lasted six weeks. Water intake increased linearly in week 1 with the rising levels of Ca and Mg in the drinking water. Increasing the Ca and Mg levels improved eggshell strength (week 2 (P =0.01), week 5 (P =0.01), and week 6 (P = 0.03), and eggshell thickness (week 6) (P =0.02) and reduced the rate at which eggs were broken (week 4) (P =0.01). The supplemental Ca and Mg did not affect egg production, egg weight, Haugh unit, albumen height, eggshell colour, and yolk colour compared with CON. Nor did they influence the Haugh unit and albumen height after storing for 1, 5, 10 and 15 days. In conclusion, adding Ca and Mg to the drinking water increased the thickness and strength of the eggshells

Trace element geochemistry and stable isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) records of the Paleocene coals, Salt Range, Punjab, Pakistan

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordThe Paleocene coals of the Salt Range in the Punjab Province of Pakistan have great economic potential; however, their trace element and stable isotopic characteristics have not been studied in detail except for a few sporadic samples. In this study, a total of 59 coal samples of which 14 are obtained from open cast mines have been investigated for elemental composition and δ13C-δ15N isotopic signatures. Average contents of trace elements such as Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, Sr, Th, U, V, and Zn are 7.4, 41.7, 11.2, 12.5, 90.2, 4.0, 1.9, 128, and 31.1 mg/kg, respectively. These values, when compared with the World Coal Clarke values, were relatively higher in low-rank coals in comparison with Clarke values for brown coals. Likewise, As (20.4 mg/kg), Co (6.6 mg/kg), Cr (22.4 mg/kg), Cu (13.3 mg/kg), Pb (19.2 mg/kg), Sr (154.7 mg/kg), Th (2.5 mg/kg), V (47.8 mg/kg), and Zn (75.1 mg/kg) were significantly higher in the sub-bituminous to bituminous coals of the Salt Range. Mineralogical analysis, based on X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, revealed that the studied samples contain illite, kaolinite calcite, gypsum, pyrite, and quartz. Elemental affinity with organic and inorganic phases of coals calculated by an indirect statistical approach indicated a positive association of ash content with Ag, Al, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Mn, P, Rb, Pb, Th, U, and V, suggesting the presence of inorganic components in studied coals. However, As, Fe, Sr, and Zn exhibit negative correlations that imply their association with the organic fraction. The δ13C and δ15N isotopic range and average values for 12 coal samples were − 24.94‰ to − 25.86‰ (−25.41‰) and − 2.77‰ to 3.22‰ (0.96‰), respectively, reflecting 3C type modern terrestrial vegetation were common in the palaeomires of studied coal seams. In addition, the trivial variations of 0.92‰ and 0.45‰ among 13C and 15N values can be attributed to water level fluctuations and plant assemblies

Biomass-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Aerogel Counter Electrodes for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Dye sensitized solar cells have emerged as an attractive alternative to conventional solar cells due to their easy processing and the abundance and low cost of their materials. However, the counter electrode in these cells employs platinum which significantly impacts their cost. Here, we report biomass-derived, nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel as an effective alternative to conventional platinum-based counter electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells. A stable suspension of biomass-derived, nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel was prepared in DMF by using oleylamine as a binder. The nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel electrode was annealed at different temperatures, and its impact on photovoltaic performance is investigated. I-V measurements confirm that the annealing temperature substantially enhances the photovoltaic parameters of these devices; these enhancements are linked to the removal of the organic binders. Electrochemical impedance spectra of the counter electrodes confirm that removal of oleylamine in nitrogen-doped carbon aerogels reduces the series resistance of the resulting electrodes. The power conversion efficiency of the solar cells from optimized nitrogen-doped carbon aerogel exhibited comparable efficiency to that of a cell fabricated using a platinum-based counter electrode. This study demonstrates the potential of biomass-derived carbon aerogels as a cheap and sustainable replacement of platinum in DSSCs

Near-Infrared and short-wavelength infrared photodiodes based on dye-perovskite composites

Organohalide perovskites have emerged as promising light‐sensing materials because of their superior optoelectronic properties and low‐cost processing methods. Recently, perovskite‐based photodetectors have successfully been demonstrated as both broadband and narrowband varieties. However, the photodetection bandwidth in perovskite‐based photodetectors has so far been limited to the near‐infrared regime owing to the relatively wide band gap of hybrid organohalide perovskites. In particular, short‐wavelength infrared photodiodes operating beyond 1 µm have not yet been realized with organohalide perovskites. In this study, narrow band gap organic dyes are combined with hybrid perovskites to form composite films as active photoresponsive layers. Tuning the dye loading allows for optimization of the spectral response characteristics and excellent charge‐carrier mobilities near 11 cm2 V−1 s−1, suggesting that these composites combine the light‐absorbing properties or IR dyes with the outstanding charge‐extraction characteristics of the perovskite. This study demonstrates the first perovskite photodiodes with deep near‐infrared and short‐wavelength infrared response that extends as far as 1.6 µm. All devices are solution‐processed and exhibit relatively high responsivity, low dark current, and fast response at room temperature, making this approach highly attractive for next‐generation light‐detection techniques

Intelligent Traffic Signal Automation Based on Computer Vision Techniques Using Deep Learning

Traffic congestion in highly populated urban areas is a huge problem these days. A lot of researchers have proposed many systems to monitor traffic flow and handle congestion through different techniques. But the current systems are not reliable enough to perceive traffic signals in real-time. Therefore, we aim to build a system that can efficiently perform real-time environments to solve the traffic congestion problem through signal automation. Since vehicle detection and counting are crucial in any traffic system, we use state-of-the-art deep learning techniques to detect and count vehicles in real-time. We then automate the signal timings by comparing the count of traffic on all sides of a junction. These automated signal timings sufficiently reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. We prepared a dataset of 4500 images and achieved about 91% accuracy by training it on Faster RCNN