MARINE: Man-in-the-middle attack resistant trust model IN connEcted vehicles

Vehicular Ad-hoc NETwork (VANET), a novel technology holds a paramount importance within the transportation domain due to its abilities to increase traffic efficiency and safety. Connected vehicles propagate sensitive information which must be shared with the neighbors in a secure environment. However, VANET may also include dishonest nodes such as Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) attackers aiming to distribute and share malicious content with the vehicles, thus polluting the network with compromised information. In this regard, establishing trust among connected vehicles can increase security as every participating vehicle will generate and propagate authentic, accurate and trusted content within the network. In this paper, we propose a novel trust model, namely, Man-in-the-middle Attack Resistance trust model IN connEcted vehicles (MARINE), which identifies dishonest nodes performing MiTM attacks in an efficient way as well as revokes their credentials. Every node running MARINE system first establishes trust for the sender by performing multi-dimensional plausibility checks. Once the receiver verifies the trustworthiness of the sender, the received data is then evaluated both directly and indirectly. Extensive simulations are carried out to evaluate the performance and accuracy of MARINE rigorously across three MiTM attacker models and the bench-marked trust model. Simulation results show that for a network containing 35% MiTM attackers, MARINE outperforms the state of the art trust model by 15%, 18%, and 17% improvements in precision, recall and F-score, respectively.N/A

Anti Chlamydial Antibodies in Women with Ectopic Pregnancy

Background: To compare the frequency of chlamydia trachomatis infection in women with ectopic and with normal pregnancies.Methods: In this case-control study diagnosed patients of ectopic pregnancy(EP)were included . The control group comprised of early normal intra uterine pregnancies (1st trimester). A total number of 88, comprising 44 cases and 44 controls were included in this study. Sera from patients was drawn at the time of operation or within the subsequent 24 hours. Anti-chlamydial IgG was performed by ELISA.Results: Sampled cases population (n=44) had mean age distribution 26.48 years while among controls, mean age was 25.32 years. Presenting symptoms of cases showed pelvic pain (54.5%), bleeding (27.3%), vomiting (11.4%) and burning micturition (6.8%). During contraceptive practices , out of 88 patients, 5 cases and 20 controls gave history of safe sex practices. Out of 63 patients, who did not give history of any contraceptive practice, Anti-Chlamydia IgG was detected in 11 cases and 5 controls. Regarding Anti-Chlamydia IgG distribution among cases and controls, IgG was detected in 11(25%) cases and in 5(11.3%) controls.Conclusion: Frequency of anti-chlamydial IgG antibodies was much higher in women with ectopic pregnancy (25%) as compared to healthy controls(11.3%)

Integrating Knowledge Management and Human Resource Development: A Knowledge Based HRD Process model

The human resource management field is known for its information and knowledge intensive nature, yet it could be easily suggested that the most dominant work has focused upon the human resource management as a systematic way of accumulating and processing of information related to people in the organization. The focus of the past development remained mostly on information processing, and more recently on explicit knowledge; however, using a knowledge management perspective could provide more fruitful and comprehensive source of knowledge based human resource development approach. A profound role of tacit knowledge in the development of individuals and particularly communities of practices could emerge as an alternative source of practice based HRD. The “knowledge lens” conceptual approach is used to enrich the human resource development field in order to integrate and bring commonalities in the fields of HRM and KM. Focusing on the core beliefs in the two fields through a synthesis literature review, a four phased knowledge oriented HRD conceptual framework is developed that presents an attempt to extended general HRD process model by integrating knowledge management at various stages of HRD. Important research prepositions driven out of the framework and corresponding 10 research questions are formulated for future multidisciplinary research efforts

In-Vitro Synergy of Aqueous Garlic Extract with Ciprofloxacin Against Clinical Isolates of Salmonella Typhi

Objective: To detemine the emerging issue of treatment failures in typhoid by evaluating the activity of a new combination of aqueous garlic extract and ciprofloxacin. Study Place and Duration: Department of Microbiology, University of Health Sciences Lahore, Pakistan from April 2013-April 2014Methodology: Synergism of garlic with ciprofloxacin against   Typhi was assessed to solve the critical issue of treatment failure with the best known anti-typhoid drugs till now i-e fluoroquinolones. Twenty five ciprofloxacin susceptible Typhi isolates were selected. Aqueous garlic extract (AGE) was prepared and was screened for antibacterial activity by agar well diffusion method which exhibited an inhibition zone of 25.36±1.60 mm against 1 tested isolate.Results: Minimum Inhibitory concentration 90 (MIC90) of ciprofloxacin and AGE was > 0.25µg/ml and > 20mg/ml respectively as determined by micro broth dilution method. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) was used as a reference strain. Synergism of the combination was assessed using microdilution checkerboard titration technique. The fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICIs) for all the isolates were >0.5 <4.Conclusion: Thus, ciprofloxacin and Aqueous garlic extract (AGE) showed significant antibacterial activity individually against Typhi but Cipro-AGE combination did not prove to be synergistic against Typhi nor against ATCC Pseudomonas aeruginosa 27853.Keywords: , ,&nbsp

Cryptosporidiosis: An Ignored Cause of Persistent Diarrhea among Children

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of Cryptosporidium species among children presenting to a tertiary care hospital with persistent diarrhea.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2016 to February 2017 at Microbiology Department, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. Non-probability consecutive sampling technique was used and a total of 71 stool samples were collected from children admitted to Paediatric ward of Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, and full filling the inclusion criteria. Every sample was collected according to standard protocol, brought to the lab within 3 hours, and processed for modified ZN staining. Cryptosporidium oocysts (bright red against a blue background) were identified.Results: Among 71 enrolled children (male=41, female =30) Cryptosporidium was detected in 9.85% (n=7) stool samples via modified ZN stain. Majority of the children with Cryptosporidium species cyst infection were less than 5 years old age. All the children presented with watery diarrhea abdominal pain and fever. Only one case of Cryptosporidium species cyst in diarrheal stools of children below 6 months of age was presented. The frequency of Cryptosporidium infection was twice in males 12.5% as compared to females 6.6 %.Conclusion: The present study highlights the importance of Cryptosporidium detection as a cause of diarrhea, especially in children

Association between gonadotrophic hormones (FSH and LH) and Type 2 diabetes mellitus in Adult Iraqi Males: a case-control Study

Background: Numerous authors have extensively assessed the correlation between gonadotrophic hormones, (FSH) and (LH), and metabolic disturbances in type 2 diabetes among postmenopausal women; On the other hand, there is limited knowledge regarding the connection between metabolic disorders in DMT2 and the pituitary-gonadal axis for men. Only a small number of published articles have emphasized noteworthy results in this regard. The current study has labeled an objective of how DMT2 is linked to serum hormonal levels concerning gonadotrophins.Methods: Iraq, Al-Ramadi Hospital served as the site of case-control research, involving 100 adult males diagnosed with DMT2 and 50 healthy male people as a control group. The patients were chosen at random among the people attending the Al-Ramadi teaching hospital's diabetes control center. The control group consisted of 50 adult males who were healthcare providers working at the teaching hospital. The study collected various variables, including age, (BMI), serum (FSH), (LH), fasting plasma glucose level, HbA1c%, HOMA-IR, and insulin level.Results: Mean serum LH was significant lower in patients with DMT2 Compared to controls, 3.83 ±1.76 mIU/ml versus 9.88 ± 1.64 mIU/ml, (p < 0.001); in addition, the percentage of individuals with low serum LH was significantly high in the patient’s group in comparison to that of the control, 95.0 % versus 4.0 %, (p < 0.001). Mean serum FSH was significant lower in patients with DMT2 in comparison with the category of controls, 3.41 ±1.25 mIU/ml versus 9.01 ±1.44 mIU/ml, (p < 0.001); Moreover, the percentage of people with low serum FSH was significantly higher in patients’ group in comparison to that of control, 100 % versus 0.0 %, (p < 0.001).Conclusions: DMT2 is linked with a significant effect on the pituitary-gonadal axis leading to reduced production of FSH and LH hormones in men

Colonizer to Drug Resistant isolate, What is Happening to our Staphylococcus Aureus?

Objective: To evaluate resistant trend of multiple antimicrobial agents against Staphylococcus aureus isolates along with its prevalence.&nbsp; Material and Methods: This prospective descriptive study was carried out in the department of microbiology Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore from 1st January 2015 to 25 may 2016. Simple random technique was used, and 4570 clinical samples (Pus, blood, pleural fluid, tracheal aspirate, urine, sputum, HVS) were received from ICU, Surgical Unit, Medical Unit and OPD for culture sensitivity testing, antimicrobial resistant trend was tested according to CLSI guidelines&nbsp; Results: Maximum isolates were recovered from surgical unit 31.9%, sample-wise maximum isolates were recovered from pus samples 26.8%. age group and genderbased distribution showed among male’s high isolation rate was observed in 21-40 years while in females 41-60-year age group. Every isolate was (100%) susceptible to linezolid, vancomycin and teicoplanin, cotrimoxazole also showed very low rate of drug resistance only 8.3%, while penicillin Doxycycline, Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin showed 95.9%,69.8%55.4% and 48.2% drug resistance respectively, 43-45% drugresistant rate observed in case of Co-amoxiclave, Methicillin, Gentamicin, Fusidic Acid, Amikacin, and Clindamycin&nbsp; Conclusion: Linezolid, Vancomycin, and Teicoplanin are best therapeutic Choices against Staphylococcus aureus associated infections

A comparative analysis of trust models for safety applications in IoT-enabled vehicular networks

To achieve these goals, VANET requires a secure environment for authentic, reliable and trusted information dissemination among the network entities. However, VANET is prone to different attacks resulting in the dissemination of compromised/false information among network nodes. One way to manage a secure and trusted network is to introduce trust among the vehicular nodes. To this end, various Trust Models (TMs) are developed for VANET and can be broadly categorized into three classes, Entity-oriented Trust Models (ETM), Data oriented Trust Models (DTM) and Hybrid Trust Models (HTM). These TMs evaluate trust based on the received information (data), the vehicle (entity) or both through different mechanisms. In this paper, we present a comparative study of the three TMs. Furthermore, we evaluate these TMs against the different trust, security and quality-of-service related benchmarks. Simulation results revealed that all these TMs have deficiencies in terms of end-to-end delays, event detection probabilities and false positive rates. This study can be used as a guideline for researchers to design new efficient and effective TMs for VANET.N/

The Case of HyperLedger Fabric as a Blockchain Solution for Healthcare Applications

The healthcare industry deals with highly sensitive data which must be managed in a secure way. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) hold various kinds of personal and sensitive data which contain names, addresses, social security numbers, insurance numbers, and medical history. Such personal data is valuable to the patients, healthcare service providers, medical insurance companies, and research institutions. However, the public release of this highly sensitive personal data poses serious privacy and security threats to patients and healthcare service providers. Hence, we foresee the requirement of new technologies to address the privacy and security challenges for personal data in healthcare applications. Blockchain is one of the promising solutions, aimed to provide transparency, security, and privacy using consensus-driven decentralised data management on top of peer-to-peer distributed computing systems. Therefore, to solve the mentioned problems in healthcare applications, in this paper, we investigate the use of private blockchain technologies to assess their feasibility for healthcare applications. We create testing scenarios using HyperLedger Fabric to explore different criteria and use-cases for healthcare applications. Additionally, we thoroughly evaluate the representative test case scenarios to assess the blockchain-enabled security criteria in terms of data confidentiality, privacy and access control. The experimental evaluation reveals the promising benefits of private blockchain technologies in terms of security, regulation compliance, compatibility, flexibility, and scalability