Secure and Privacy-preserving Network Slicing in 3GPP 5G System Architecture

Network slicing in 3GPP 5G system architecture has introduced significant improvements in the flexibility and efficiency of mobile communication. However, this new functionality poses challenges in maintaining the privacy of mobile users, especially in multi-hop environments. In this paper, we propose a secure and privacy-preserving network slicing protocol (SPNS) that combines 5G network slicing and onion routing to address these challenges and provide secure and efficient communication. Our approach enables mobile users to select network slices while incorporating measures to prevent curious RAN nodes or external attackers from accessing full slice information. Additionally, we ensure that the 5G core network can authenticate all RANs, while avoiding reliance on a single RAN for service provision. Besides, SPNS implements end-to-end encryption for data transmission within the network slices, providing an extra layer of privacy and security. Finally, we conducted extensive experiments to evaluate the time cost of establishing network slice links under varying conditions. SPNS provides a promising solution for enhancing the privacy and security of communication in 5G networks

Modelling of Temporal‐Spatial Distribution of Airplane Wake Vortex for Scattering Analysis

Aircraft wake vortex is a pair of intensive counter‐rotating airflow generated by a flying aircraft. Wake vortex is one of the most dangerous hazards in aviation because it may cause a following aircraft to roll out of control, particularly during the taking off and landing phases. The real‐time detection of wake vortex is a frontier scientific problem emerging from many fields like aviation safety and atmospheric physics, and the dynamics and scattering characteristics of it remain as key problems to develop corresponding detection technologies. This chapter aims at presenting a simulation scheme for the dynamics of wake vortex under different weather conditions. For wake vortex generated in clear air, changes of the atmospheric dielectric constant produced by the density variation and water vapour variation are analysed; for wake vortex generated in rainy condition, the raindrop distribution in the wake vortex is also analysed. Both of them are essential for further analysing the scattering characteristics and developing new detection algorithms

Privacy-Preserving Model Aggregation for Asynchronous Federated Learning

We present a novel privacy-preserving model aggregation for asynchronous federated learning, named PPA-AFL that removes the restriction of synchronous aggregation of local model updates in federated learning, while enabling the protection of the local model updates against the server. In PPA-AFL, clients can proactive decide when to engage in the training process, and sends local model updates to the server when the updates are available. Thus, it is not necessary to keep synchronicity with other clients. To safeguard client updates and facilitate local model aggregation, we employ Paillier encryption for local update encryption and support homomorphic aggregation. Furthermore, secret sharing is utilized to enable the sharing of decryption keys and facilitate privacy-preserving asynchronous aggregation. As a result, the server remains unable to gain any information about the local updates while asynchronously aggregating to produce the global model. We demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed PPA-AFL framework through comprehensive complexity analysis and extensive experiments on a prototype implementation, highlighting its potential for practical adoption in privacy-sensitive asynchronous federated learning scenarios

Bridge’s Overall Structural Scheme Analysis in High Seismic Risk Permafrost Regions

The mechanism of pile-soil reaction in frozen ground is not clear at present, but it is obvious that the reduction of dead weight will be beneficial to the seismic resistance of bridges. In view of the limited bridge engineering practice in high seismic risk permafrost regions, the paper addressed the structural performance of the superstructure and its effect on piles in these special regions. Four superstructures with different dead weights were compared, and bored piles were designed. Numerical simulations were implemented to investigate the refreezing time of the bored pile foundation. The concrete pile cooled rapidly in the first two days. The refreezing times of the GFRP, prestressed concrete T-girder, integrated composite girder, and MVFT girder were 15d, 37d, 39d, and 179d, respectively. The refreezing time of a pile in the same soil layer is mainly affected by the pile’s diameter, and it is significantly correlated to the square of the pile diameter. It reflects that the selection of bridge superstructures in the permafrost region is very important, which has been ignored in previous studies. The pile length and pile diameter of the lighter superstructure can be shorter and smaller to reduce the refreezing time and alleviate the thermal disturbance. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2022-08-07-01 Full Text: PD

Mechanical Design and Kinematic Modeling of a Cable-Driven Arm Exoskeleton Incorporating Inaccurate Human Limb Anthropomorphic Parameters

Compared with conventional exoskeletons with rigid links, cable-driven upper-limb exoskeletons are light weight and have simple structures. However, cable-driven exoskeletons rely heavily on the human skeletal system for support. Kinematic modeling and control thus becomes very challenging due to inaccurate anthropomorphic parameters and flexible attachments. In this paper, the mechanical design of a cable-driven arm rehabilitation exoskeleton is proposed to accommodate human limbs of different sizes and shapes. A novel arm cuff able to adapt to the contours of human upper limbs is designed. This has given rise to an exoskeleton which reduces the uncertainties caused by instabilities between the exoskeleton and the human arm. A kinematic model of the exoskeleton is further developed by considering the inaccuracies of human-arm skeleton kinematics and attachment errors of the exoskeleton. A parameter identification method is used to improve the accuracy of the kinematic model. The developed kinematic model is finally tested with a primary experiment with an exoskeleton prototype

M2DF: Multi-grained Multi-curriculum Denoising Framework for Multimodal Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis

Multimodal Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis (MABSA) is a fine-grained Sentiment Analysis task, which has attracted growing research interests recently. Existing work mainly utilizes image information to improve the performance of MABSA task. However, most of the studies overestimate the importance of images since there are many noise images unrelated to the text in the dataset, which will have a negative impact on model learning. Although some work attempts to filter low-quality noise images by setting thresholds, relying on thresholds will inevitably filter out a lot of useful image information. Therefore, in this work, we focus on whether the negative impact of noisy images can be reduced without modifying the data. To achieve this goal, we borrow the idea of Curriculum Learning and propose a Multi-grained Multi-curriculum Denoising Framework (M2DF), which can achieve denoising by adjusting the order of training data. Extensive experimental results show that our framework consistently outperforms state-of-the-art work on three sub-tasks of MABSA.Comment: Accepted by EMNLP 202

Mechanical deformation mechanism and verification of sections at junctions of light and dark tunnel in a mountain area

Projects involving junctions of light and dark tunnel in mountainous areas are complex engineering problems that combine tunnel structure, slope rock-soil mass and protection projects. Such junctions suffer from a complex and changeable load. The stress and deformation of the junction varies under different conditions. Thus, it is a major source of inconvenience for construction and monitoring operations. In this paper, according to the load conditions at a junction of light and dark tunnel, we divide the junction hole into thrust, compression, and combined thrust-compression types. Three types of structures were simulated by numerical analysis, and we explored the structural deformation and stress of these types of tunnel under different condition. Thus, in any construction process, the mechanical deformation mechanism and the weak point in the structure should be worked out. Based on the weak parts, some monitoring points were installed, and four fields for monitoring were chosen. The monitoring results show that the actual deformation, stress and structural failure location are basically consistent with the numerical simulation results. The deformation mechanism of light and dark tunnel junction obtained can provide the basis for selecting the treatment measures and controlling the structural deformation. Furthermore, the results can also be used as a reference for similar engineering design, construction and site monitoring projects

JWA Deficiency Suppresses Dimethylbenz[a]Anthracene-Phorbol Ester Induced Skin Papillomas via Inactivation of MAPK Pathway in Mice

Our previous studies indicated that JWA plays an important role in DNA damage repair, cell migration, and regulation of MAPKs. In this study, we investigated the role of JWA in chemical carcinogenesis using conditional JWA knockout (JWAΔ2/Δ2) mice and two-stage model of skin carcinogenesis. Our results indicated that JWAΔ2/Δ2 mice were resistant to the development of skin papillomas initiated by 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) followed by promotion with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). In JWAΔ2/Δ2 mice, the induction of papilloma was delayed, and the tumor number and size were reduced. In primary keratinocytes from JWAΔ2/Δ2 mice, DMBA exposure induced more intensive DNA damage, while TPA-promoted cell proliferation was reduced. The further mechanistic studies showed that JWA deficiency blocked TPA-induced activation of MAPKs and its downstream transcription factor Elk1 both in vitro and in vivo. JWAΔ2/Δ2 mice are resistance to tumorigenesis induced by DMBA/TPA probably through inhibition of transcription factor Elk1 via MAPKs. These results highlight the importance of JWA in skin homeostasis and in the process of skin tumor development