Lightweight Mutual Authentication Protocol for Low Cost RFID Tags

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology one of the most promising technologies in the field of ubiquitous computing. Indeed, RFID technology may well replace barcode technology. Although it offers many advantages over other identification systems, there are also associated security risks that are not easy to be addressed. When designing a real lightweight authentication protocol for low cost RFID tags, a number of challenges arise due to the extremely limited computational, storage and communication abilities of Low-cost RFID tags. This paper proposes a real mutual authentication protocol for low cost RFID tags. The proposed protocol prevents passive attacks as active attacks are discounted when designing a protocol to meet the requirements of low cost RFID tags. However the implementation of the protocol meets the limited abilities of low cost RFID tags.Comment: 11 Pages, IJNS

An Investigation into using Digital Games-Based Learning in Architecture Education

Through the evolution of human life, the changes that happen in all fields, such as transportation, industry, communication, etc., are recognized, however the classroom and its education facilities are still as they have been for a long time, based on the concept of transforming information or knowledge from the mind of the instructor to the minds of students. Students, as a new generation, have evolving skills in dealing with digital technologies, having begun the process in their childhood; therefore, they cannot be educated via conventional methods. This study introduces digital gaming in education as a new, futuristic learning technique to be used in architectural education to attract students to learn, based on the common ground between the processes of designing and playing games, from exploring possibilities under certain constraints to emphasizing decision-making and activity-based collaborations. The research has originated from the lack of studies regarding this subject, especially in the architectural field, aiming to introduce a theoretical approach to investigating the use of digital game-based learning (DGBL) in architectural education as an integration between real and virtual educational environments particularly through the virtual worlds based on the ’Second Life’- digital platform. This study is significant in terms of making design learning fun and constructive, reaching new possibilities in architectural design

Ventricular Myocyte Contraction, Calcium Transport and Expression of Genes Encoding Cardiac Muscle Proteins in Type 2 Diabetic Rats Fed a Sucrose-Enriched Diet

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is currently the fastest growing disease in the world. The prevalence of DM has increased worldwide and is expected to double within 20 years. The UAE is ranked 15th worldwide, with 18.98% of the UAE population living with diabetes. Six Middle East North Africa (MENA) region countries – Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) - are among the world’s 10 highest for prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance. This represents a huge cost to society in terms of morbidity and mortality, and economically through lost productivity and cost burden on the healthcare system. In 2009 mortality linked to DM constituted 75% percent of the deaths among UAE nationals and 31% among non-nationals. The Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat is one of the best characterized genetic animal models of T2DM. A variety of contractile dysfunctions, associated with alterations in intracellular Ca2+, have been demonstrated in GK rat heart. The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has been linked to the rising rates of obesity which in turn is a risk factor for development of T2DM. In these experiments, GK and Control rats received either normal drinking water or drinking water containing sucrose (100-400Mm) for either 6 or 8 months. After 6 months of dietary intervention the amplitude of ventricular myocytes shortening and Ca2+ transient were not significantly altered in either GK or control rats. After 8 months, amplitude of shortening was decreased in Control/Sucrose and in GK/Sucrose rats compared to Control and GK rats respectively. Interestingly, the amplitude of the Ca2+ transient was increased in myocytes from Control/Sucrose and decreased in GK/Sucrose compared to Control and GK rats. Expression of genes encoding a range of ventricular muscle proteins were also investigated in ventricular tissue after 8 months of dietary intervention. Genes encoding cardiac muscle proteins (Myh7, Mybpc3, My11, My13, My1pf), intercellular proteins (Gja4), cell membrane transport (Atp1b1), calcium channels (Cacna1c, Cacnc1g, Cacnb1), potassium channels (Kcnj11) were upregulated in GK compared to control rats. Genes encoding potassium channels (Kcnb1) were decreased in GK compared to Control rats. Genes encoding cardiac muscle proteins (Myh6, Mybpc3, Tnn2), intercellular proteins (Gja1, Gja4), intracellular Ca2+ transport (Atp2a1, Ryr2), cell membrane transport (Atp1a2, Atp1b1), potassium channel (Kcnj2, Kcnj8) proteins were upregulated in Control/Sucrose compared to control rats. Genes encoding cardiac muscle proteins (Myh7) were downregulated in Control/Sucrose compared to Control rats. Genes encoding cardiac muscle protein (Myh7), potassium channel (Kenj11) proteins were downregulated in GK/Sucrose compared to Control rats. In conclusion, sucrose-enriched diets altered dietary habits in GK and control rats and exacerbated diabetic status in GK rats. Subtle changes in expression of genes encoding a variety of ventricular muscle proteins are associated with changes in ventricular myocyte shortening and intracellularCa2+ transport in ventricular myocytes from GK T2DM and Control rats fed a sucrose-enriched diet

Investigating shear capacity of RC beam-column joints using artificial intelligence techniques

Beam-column joints are critical zones in reinforced concrete structures. The behavior of joints is very complex and governed by different mechanisms such as flexure, shear, and bond stress between the reinforcement and the concrete. Shear transfer mechanisms through the joint are one of the most important factors affecting the joint performance. Shear failure occurring in the joint can lead to severe damage and may result in the collapse of the structure. This thesis presents an investigation into the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beam-column joints. The performance is influenced by several key parameters. An analysis is carried out to simulate the behavior of the exterior beam-column joints subjected to monotonic loading and of interior joints subjected to reverse cyclic loaDing The main parameters considered in this study are: joint shear reinforcement ratio, concrete compressive strength, beam tension longitudinal reinforcement ratio, joint aspect ratio, and column axial stress. The analysis is conducted using a database collected from different experimental programs in the literature. Based on this database, analytical models are created using two artificial intelligence approaches namely artificial neural networks (ANNs) and genetic algorithms (GAs). Evaluation of the existing formulae is conducted and the effect of each of the investigated parameters is stated and new formulae are proposed for the shear design of a reinforced concrete beam-column joint

Detection and localization enhancement for satellite images with small forgeries using modified GAN-based CNN structure

The image forgery process can be simply defined as inserting some objects of different sizes to vanish some structures or scenes. Satellite images can be forged in many ways, such as copy-paste, copy-move, and splicing processes. Recent approaches present a generative adversarial network (GAN) as an effective method for identifying the presence of spliced forgeries and identifying their locations with a higher detection accuracy of large- and medium-sized forgeries. However, such recent approaches clearly show limited detection accuracy of small-sized forgeries. Accordingly, the localization step of such small-sized forgeries is negatively impacted. In this paper, two different approaches for detecting and localizing small-sized forgeries in satellite images are proposed. The first approach is inspired by a recently presented GAN-based approach and is modified to an enhanced version. The experimental results manifest that the detection accuracy of the first proposed approach noticeably increased to 86% compared to its inspiring one with 79% for the small-sized forgeries. Whereas, the second proposed approach uses a different design of a CNN-based discriminator to significantly enhance the detection accuracy to 94%, using the same dataset obtained from NASA and the US Geological Survey (USGS) for validation and testing. Furthermore, the results show a comparable detection accuracy in large- and medium-sized forgeries using the two proposed approaches compared to the competing ones. This study can be applied in the forensic field, with clear discrimination between the forged and pristine images

Evaluation of Microtensile Bond Strength of Universal Self-etch Adhesive System to Wet and Dry Dentin

BACKGROUND: The durability of dentin-resin interfaces with the universal adhesive system is a crucial characteristic with chemical interactions between the exposed collagen and the adhesive monomers, but it is still compromised with wet and dry mode. AIM: The present study evaluated the effect of dentin wetness and solvents containing of one-step self-etch adhesives on the microtensile bond strength (μTBS) of dentin at different storage times. METHODS: Occlusal dentin of 54 extracted human molars was exposed. Each adhesive agent was applied according to manufacturer instructions to wet and dry dentin surfaces. Composite resin was incrementally built up. Bond strengths to dentin were determined using the μTBS test after water storage for 24 h, 1 month, and 6 months. One-way ANOVA was used to compare between more than two non-related samples. The significance level was set at p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Dryness of dentin increases the μTBS with solvent-containing adhesives while decrease the μTBS with solvent-free adhesive. There was an increase in microtensile bond strength values in the case of ethanol water-based self-etch adhesive over time. No statistically significant difference was found among different storage times regarding μTBS for solvent-free adhesive, while a statistically significant difference was found among different storage times in μTBS for solvent-containing adhesives. CONCLUSION: Universal adhesive systems improve the durability and stability of dentin bond strength

Utilizing Waste Latex Paint Toward Improving The Performance Of Concrete

In this paper, incorporating the waste latex paint (WLP) into the conventional concrete as a partial replacement of sand to improve its durability was investigated. The fresh and hardened characterizations, in addition to the durability of concrete, were examined. The slump test was used to evaluate the fresh properties, while the hardened properties were evaluated through the volume of voids and absorption rate, in addition to the compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths tests. The durability performance was evaluated by the surface resistivity, bulk electrical resistivity, as well as freeze and thaw resistance tests. The results showed a reduction in the workability with the addition of WLP, which required high dosages of superplasticizer to maintain the same slump in all the mixtures. Although there was a reduction in the compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths, incorporating the WLP into the OPC concrete improved the durability significantly. Specimens had 5% and 10% of WLP passed the 300 freeze and thaw cycles without deterioration in the relative dynamic modulus of elasticity, compared with the reference mixtures that failed after only 144 cycles. Simultaneously, the surface and bulk electrical resistivity increased by approximately 125% and 138%, respectively, as result of reducing the volume of air voids that was decreased by 9%. The SE images and EDS spectrums showed denser cementitious matrixes with a film of polymeric layer covered the hydration products with adding waste latex paint