Communications in emergency and crisis situations

In emergency and crisis situations (ECS) like earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, it is very important that communication facilities are operative to provide services both to rescue teams and civilians. In ECS it is very common that communication premises are often unable to provide services, either due to physical damages or traffic overload. In such a case there is the need for rapid reestablishment of communication services. In this paper the communication services that can be exploited for ECS mitigation are discussed. The usage scenarios of such services are studied. Following that and looking from a network perspective view an ECS communication network architecture is presented. This architecture aims to provide seamless interoperability of varies communication technologies often present in ECS to provide an ECS communication solution. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

SIREN – A network infrastructure for emergencies.

The SIREN project (Secure, Interoperable, UAV-assisted, Rapid Emergency Deployment Communication and sensing Infrastructure) implements a secure, distributed, open, self-configured and emergency-aware network and service platform for automated, secure and dependable support of multiple mission critical applications in highly demanding and dynamic emergency environments

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Elliptic curve usage for the mutual authentication and key agreement on contactless SmartCards with memory management mechanism

Contactless SmartCards represent particular type of SmartCards, with a very convenient usage, and it is expected that they will expand their application capabilities in a variety of different fields. The potential intrusion fields, could be Electronic-money, the Public Transportation, the Electronic Authentication, Health Care and more. Their entrance within these fields, will generate new and more improved services. However, this type of SmartCards are subject to several constraints, such as bandwidth availability, available memory space, and computational effort. This makes more difficult the execution of complicated procedures, such as processing data, under the prism of Public or Private Cryptography Schemes. Having in mind, the importance of the security in the Informatics area, not only data storage security, but also transmission security, together with the fact that Cryptography ensures the integrity and the protection of data, SmartCards, and their secure applications, implies a great interest. The solution to these matters is given by the usage of Elliptic Curves, which due to their unique capabilities, match perfectly to the constraints posed by Contactless SmartCard's and their applications. Their unique capabilities provide the strongest security per Binary digit, in comparison with other different Cryptosystems already proposed. This ability of the Elliptic Curves offers smaller sized keys, that need less computational effort and memory space usage. These aspects, provide Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems with higher computation speed and less hardware cost. This project mainly focuses on the implementation of Cryptographic services, by explaining the way that Elliptic Curves, and their proper use, can result in cost reduction and speed increase, in terms of secure application deployment and implementation in the Contactless SmartCard field. Throughout this project, we implement the use of optimized techniques in Elliptic Arithmetic, to avoid the use of a co-processor, to maintain the cost at a low level. Thus, we ensure the high levels of security, without increasing the cost. We also propose a Mutual Authentication Protocol, between two entities, (i.e a Contactless SmartCard and a Terminal), while at the same time a key agreement is established. The keys, are being published in a way so as to avoid a -man in the middle- attack, without the use of certificates. We are also securing the communication channel, since every transmitted quantity is being encrypted, using the agreed keys and a random number is created by the terminal for the cause of every transaction. Finally, we propose a mechanism to manage the SmartCard's non volatile memory, through which, we can account for to the lack of electrical power, invoked, either by the SmartCard's bad topology in the Magnetic Field, or from the interference by an unauthorized person who might want to obtain important information.Οι έξυπνες κάρτες χωρίς επαφή, αποτελούν ένα είδος καρτών ιδιαίτερα βολικό στη χρήση τους, που αναμένεται να επεκτείνει τα πεδία εφαρμογής τουσ ε ποικίλους χώρους όπως, αυτός της οικονομίας, του ηλεκτρονικού χρήματος, της δημόσιας συγκοινωνίας και μεταφοράς, της ηλεκτρονικής πιστοποίησης ταυτότητας, της δημόσιας υγείας. Η είσοδός τους στους χώρους αυτούς, αναμένεται να δώσει το έναυσμα της εμφάνισης και της δημιουργίας νέων και ποικίλων υπηρεσιών. Αυτού του είδους οι κάρτες ωστόσο, εμπεριέχουν περιορισμούς δυνατοτήτων όπως, στο εύρος φάσματος, στην χρησιμοποιούμενη διαθέσιμη μνήμη, αλλά και στην υπολογιστική ισχύ, κάνοντας έτσι δύσκολη την εκτέλεση περίπλοκων διαδικασιών, όπως η επεξεργασία στοιχείων και δεδομένων υπό το πρίσμα της Κρυπτογραφίας βάσει δημόσιουή ιδιωτικού κλειδιού. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη, τη σημασία της ασφάλειας των προσωπικών δεδομένων στο χώρο της πληροφορικής, τόσο στο επίπεδο της διαφύλαξης τους, όσο και στο επίπεδο της μεταφοράς και της μετάδοσής τους, καθώς και το ότι η κρυπτογραφία είναι ο παράγοντας που διασφαλίζει την εγκυρότητα και την προστασία των δεδομένων, η περίπτωση των ΄Εξυπνων Καρτών και ειδικότερα των ασφαλών εφαρμογών τους παρουσιάζει εξαιρετικό ενδιαφέρον. Τη λύση σε αυτά τα ζητήματα, έρχονται να δώσουν οι Ελλειπτικές Καμπύλες και οι μοναδικές τους ιδιότητες, οι οποίες θα λέγαμε ότι ταιριάζουν ιδανικά στις εφαρμογές των ΄Εξυπνων Καρτών, καθώς έχουν τη δυνατότητα να παρέχουν τη μεγαλύτερη δυνατή ασφάλεια ανά δυαδικό ψηφίο, με το μικρότερο δυνατό κόστος, από κάθε άλλο γνωστό σημερινό κρυπτοσύστημα. Οι Ελλειπτικές Καμπύλες επιτρέπουν την μείωση του μεγέθους του κλειδιού, κάτι το οποίο μεταφράζεται σε ανάγκη για λιγότερη μνήμη και υπολογιστική ισχύ, το οποίο με τη σειρά του συνεπάγεται μικρότερο κόστος. Η εργασία αυτή, εστιάζει κυρίως στην υλοποίηση κρυπτογραφικών υπηρεσιών, αναλύοντας τον τρόπο με τον οποίο οι Ελλειπτικές Καμπύλες και η κατάλληλη εφαρμογή τους μπορεί όχι μόνο να μειώσει το κόστος υλοποίησης και παραγωγής, αλλά επίσης να επιταχύνει την ανάπτυξη και την υλοποίηση εφαρμογών στο τομέα των έξυπνων καρτών και ιδιαίτερα στο τομέα των έξυπνων καρτών χωρίς επαφή. Επιτυγχάνουμε, την χρησιμοποίηση τεχνικών βέλτιστης εφαρμογής της αριθμητικής των Ελλειπτικών Καμπυλών προκειμένου να αποφύγουμε την χρησιμοποίηση συνεπεξεργαστή, κάτι το οποίο αποτελεί μια επιπλέον σημαντική μείωση του κόστους και της απαιτούμενης ισχύος. Επίσης, προτείνουμε ένα πρωτόκολλο βάσει του οποίου παρέχουμε αμοιβαία πιστοποίηση ταυτότητας μεταξύ δύο συμβαλλόμενων οντοτήτων και ταυτόχρονη δημιουργία δημοσίων και ιδιωτικών κλειδιών, στο πλαίσιο της Κρυπτογραφίας Δημόσιου Κλειδιού, για τη διασφάλιση του καναλιού επικοινωνίας και ανταλλαγής δεδομένων μεταξύ των δύο οντοτήτων. Τέλος, προτείνουμε ένα τρόπο με τη βοήθεια του οποίου Θα μπορέσουμε να καταπολεμήσουμε φαινόμενα διακοπής της τροφοδοσίας του ρεύματος, που έχουν προκληθεί τόσο από την κακή τοπολογία της κάρτας ως προς το τερματικό, όσο και από κακόβουλες επιθέσεις ανεπιθύμητων τρίτων, με σκοπό την απόκτηση σημαντικών δεδομένων για την κάρτα

Influence of the impregnation velocity on impregnation quality and mechanical properties of Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM) materials

Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) fabricated FRP laminates generally show significantly small void contents. The apparent difference in void content is generally attributed to the difference in the resin infusion driving force, i.e., vacuum versus injection pressure. In the present study, we contrast the influence of processing parameters on the impregnation quality of FRP laminates. Application of different vacuum pressures (500, 800 and ~103 mbar) during VARTM results in different impregnation velocity due to different compaction levels produced. Composite laminates were realized using epoxy resin reinforced with carbon (CF) or glass continuous (GF) fibers. Two different textile architectures, namely unidirectional non-crimp fabrics (UD) and woven-mat (0/90), were used and various processing conditions were employed. Optical microscope observations revealed an unexpected trend relatively to the intra and inter bundle voids concentration with respect to the impregnation velocity, especially using UD-CF and UD-GF reinforcements and low impregnation rate. Tensile and three point bending tests highlighted the strong impact of fiber material and architecture on mechanical properties, whereas the presence of voids played a slight influence on the fiber dominated characteristics analyzed

Discrimination of exudative pleural effusions based on multiple biological parameters

Pleural effusion is a common complication of various diseases. Conventional methods are not always capable of establishing the cause of pleural effusion, so alternative tests are needed. The aim of this study was to explore means of discriminating between different pleural effusion groups, malignant, parapneumonic and tuberculous, based on the combined function of seven biological markers. Adenosine deaminase (ADA), interferon-γ, C-reactive protein (CRP), carcinoembryonic antigen, interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-a and vascular endothelial growth factor concentration levels were measured in pleural fluid from 45 patients with malignant, 15 with parapneumonic and 12 with tuberculous pleural effusion. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, multinomial logit modelling and canonical variate analysis were applied to discriminate the pleural effusion groups. The three groups could be discriminated successfully using the measured markers. The most important parameters for discrimination were ADA and CRP concentration levels. An individual with an ADA concentration level of >45 U·L-1 and a CRP concentration of <4 mg·dL-1 was more likely to belong to the tuberculous pleural effusion group, whereas one with an ADA concentration level of <40 U·L-1 and a CRP concentration of >6 mg·dL-1 was more likely to belong to the parapneumonic pleural effusion group, and one with a CRP concentration of <4 mg·dL-1 to the malignant pleural effusion group. The combination of adenosine deaminase and C-reactive protein levels might be sufficient for discriminating between the three different groups of exudative pleural effusion: malignant, tuberculous and parapneumonic. Copyright©ERS Journals Ltd 2007