ARM2GC: Succinct Garbled Processor for Secure Computation

We present ARM2GC, a novel secure computation framework based on Yao's Garbled Circuit (GC) protocol and the ARM processor. It allows users to develop privacy-preserving applications using standard high-level programming languages (e.g., C) and compile them using off-the-shelf ARM compilers (e.g., gcc-arm). The main enabler of this framework is the introduction of SkipGate, an algorithm that dynamically omits the communication and encryption cost of the gates whose outputs are independent of the private data. SkipGate greatly enhances the performance of ARM2GC by omitting costs of the gates associated with the instructions of the compiled binary, which is known by both parties involved in the computation. Our evaluation on benchmark functions demonstrates that ARM2GC not only outperforms the current GC frameworks that support high-level languages, it also achieves efficiency comparable to the best prior solutions based on hardware description languages. Moreover, in contrast to previous high-level frameworks with domain-specific languages and customized compilers, ARM2GC relies on standard ARM compiler which is rigorously verified and supports programs written in the standard syntax.Comment: 13 page

A simple method to assess walkability around metro stations

The ability to walk or ride a bike safely to and from metro stations is essential to the success of any metro service, especially for car users switching to the service. The main purpose of this study is to develop and apply a simple method to assess, compare, and rank walkability around different metro stations, with a priority order and specific recommendations for improvements. The proposed method depends on extracting different walkability variables in the catchment areas around metro stations. Three catchment areas around three proposed metro stations in the emerging city of Doha, Qatar were investigated using the proposed method to demonstrate its usefulness. The method was successful in comparing and ranking the different catchment areas, in addition to identifying priority areas for walkability enhancements in each area. This method is simple and can benefit professionals, practitioners, and policy makers to make swift decisions for future corrective measures, and can also be used to evaluate changes over time. 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Scopu

Analisis Sistem Pemberian Kredit Pemilikan Rumah Griya Utama Dalam Upaya Mendukung Pengendalian Intern (Studi Pada PT. Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk Kc Balikpapan)

The purpose of this research to know system the provision of credit ownership house griya main applied by PT. Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk Kantor Cabang Balikpapan and for know system the provision of credit applied has supported internal control or not. And the kind of research used in this research is research descriptive. And the kind of research used is descriptive to describe a condition or a specified phenomenon with provides an overview of system the provision of credit ownership house griya main to support internal control. Based on an analysys the data colleted by PT. Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk Kantor Cabang Balikpapan it can be seen that system the provision of credit ownership house griya main applied still do not support internal control because there are in the forms that had still not given the ordinal number of printed as form power cutting salary and form information not fixed income and so it is abus

Proposed Thermal Circuit Model for the Cost Effective Design of Fin FET

The Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device has been rapidly evolving and its size has been drastically decreasing ever since it was first fabricated in 1960 [Us Patent 3,356,858: 1967]. The substantial reduction in the CMOS device size has led to short channel effects which have resulted in the introduction of Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET), a tri-gate transistor built on a silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate. Furthermore, due to the geometry of the FinFET the severity of the heating problem has dramatically increased. Self-heating in the 3-dimensional FinFET device enhances the temperature gradients and peak temperature, which decrease drive current, increase the interconnect delays and degrade the device and interconnect reliability. In this work we have proposed a methodology to develop an accurate thermal model for the FinFET through a rigorous physics-based mathematical approach. A thermal circuit for the FinFET will be derived from the model. This model will allow chip designers to predict interconnect temperature which will lead them to achieve cost-effective design for the FinFET-based semiconductor chips. Keywords: Bulk CMOS, SOI CMOS, FinFET, Thermal heating

Correlating novel variable and conserved motifs in the Hemagglutinin protein with significant biological functions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Variations in the influenza Hemagglutinin protein contributes to antigenic drift resulting in decreased efficiency of seasonal influenza vaccines and escape from host immune response. We performed an in silico study to determine characteristics of novel variable and conserved motifs in the Hemagglutinin protein from previously reported H3N2 strains isolated from Hong Kong from 1968–1999 to predict viral motifs involved in significant biological functions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>14 MEME blocks were generated and comparative analysis of the MEME blocks identified blocks 1, 2, 3 and 7 to correlate with several biological functions. Analysis of the different Hemagglutinin sequences elucidated that the single block 7 has the highest frequency of amino acid substitution and the highest number of co-mutating pairs. MEME 2 showed intermediate variability and MEME 1 was the most conserved. Interestingly, MEME blocks 2 and 7 had the highest incidence of potential post-translational modifications sites including phosphorylation sites, ASN glycosylation motifs and N-myristylation sites. Similarly, these 2 blocks overlap with previously identified antigenic sites and receptor binding sites.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study identifies motifs in the Hemagglutinin protein with different amino acid substitution frequencies over a 31 years period, and derives relevant functional characteristics by correlation of these motifs with potential post-translational modifications sites, antigenic and receptor binding sites.</p

In vitro evaluation of commercially available theophylline sustained release tablets in Pakistan

The dissolution behavior of five commercially available brands of sustained release theophylline tablets was studied in phosphate buffer solutions of pH 1.2, 4.5, 5.5, 6.0 and 7.5 at 37 °C using the USP dissolution apparatus II (paddle method). Drug concentration in the samples was determined spectrophotometrically at 272 nm. For predicting the release characteristics of theophylline from selected commercially available tablets the data obtained in the dissolution studies was fitted into various mathematic models defining kinetic parameters of drug release like zero-order rate equation, first-order rate equation, Hixen-crowell cube root law, Higuchi equation and Korsemeyer-Peppas model. Tablets were subjected to weight variation test, hardness, drug content and in vitro release studies. The present study revealed that drug release increases with the increase of pH of the dissolution medium and also varies from brand to brand. Among the five selected brands, B1 and B4 showed better pH dependency and drug release behaviour. It has been suggested that possible reasons for difference in dissolution or drug release behaviour are the difference in the manufacturing techniques and the quantity of hydrophobic excepients used by different manufacturers, which retard the penetration of dissolution medium and ultimately decreases availability of drug in the solution.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

In vitro evaluation of commercially available theophylline sustained release tablets in Pakistan

The dissolution behavior of five commercially available brands of sustained release theophylline tablets was studied in phosphate buffer solutions of pH 1.2, 4.5, 5.5, 6.0 and 7.5 at 37 °C using the USP dissolution apparatus II (paddle method). Drug concentration in the samples was determined spectrophotometrically at 272 nm. For predicting the release characteristics of theophylline from selected commercially available tablets the data obtained in the dissolution studies was fitted into various mathematic models defining kinetic parameters of drug release like zero-order rate equation, first-order rate equation, Hixen-crowell cube root law, Higuchi equation and Korsemeyer-Peppas model. Tablets were subjected to weight variation test, hardness, drug content and in vitro release studies. The present study revealed that drug release increases with the increase of pH of the dissolution medium and also varies from brand to brand. Among the five selected brands, B1 and B4 showed better pH dependency and drug release behaviour. It has been suggested that possible reasons for difference in dissolution or drug release behaviour are the difference in the manufacturing techniques and the quantity of hydrophobic excepients used by different manufacturers, which retard the penetration of dissolution medium and ultimately decreases availability of drug in the solution.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Simple net rainfall partitioning equations for nearly closed to fully closed canopy stands

Many net rainfall models have been developed, but they are often complex, data demanding and usable only for a specific vegetation type. The focus of this study was to develop and validate two simple equations (a two- and a three-coefficient equation) for nearly full canopies of oil palm, rubber and pine trees. Throughfall and stemflow data from seven past studies were used to determine the best-fit coefficients for the two equations. The three-coefficient equation was Pn = Pg x exp [- {0.3443 – (Pg / (58.9748 + Pg)} x 0.1639)] and the two-coefficient equation was Pn = 0.7724 x Pg – 0.5845 (R2 = 0.91), where Pn and Pg are the net and gross rainfall, respectively. To validate these two equations, field data collections were started. Thirteen rain gauges fit with data loggers were used for rainfall measurement. Three sampled trees were selected randomly for stemflow measurement and one rain gauge was installed at a nearby open area. Two error indices were used as a goodness-of-fit measure for equation accuracy: index of agreement and normalised mean absolute error. The results showed that the two- and three-equation equations performed nearly equally well. They predicted the net rainfall with an error of between 12 to 23% (ranked as "Fair" to "Good" in terms of overall equation accuracy) and with an index of agreement of more than 90%. The results showed that these two equations can be used fairly accurately to estimate throughfall and net rainfall, and, to a lesser degree, stemflow. Estimation errors occurred most probably because canopy and rainfall characteristics were not taken into account in the two equations

Advancing Brain Tumor Detection: A Thorough Investigation of CNNs, Clustering, and SoftMax Classification in the Analysis of MRI Images

Brain tumors pose a significant global health challenge due to their high prevalence and mortality rates across all age groups. Detecting brain tumors at an early stage is crucial for effective treatment and patient outcomes. This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the use of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for brain tumor detection using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images. The dataset, consisting of MRI scans from both healthy individuals and patients with brain tumors, was processed and fed into the CNN architecture. The SoftMax Fully Connected layer was employed to classify the images, achieving an accuracy of 98%. To evaluate the CNN's performance, two other classifiers, Radial Basis Function (RBF) and Decision Tree (DT), were utilized, yielding accuracy rates of 98.24% and 95.64%, respectively. The study also introduced a clustering method for feature extraction, improving CNN's accuracy. Sensitivity, Specificity, and Precision were employed alongside accuracy to comprehensively evaluate the network's performance. Notably, the SoftMax classifier demonstrated the highest accuracy among the categorizers, achieving 99.52% accuracy on test data. The presented research contributes to the growing field of deep learning in medical image analysis. The combination of CNNs and MRI data offers a promising tool for accurately detecting brain tumors, with potential implications for early diagnosis and improved patient care

Prevalence of HLA-B27 in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis in Qatar

Background and Objectives. The human leukocyte antigen HLA-B27 is a class 1 antigen of the major histocompatibility complex and is strongly associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). The purpose of the present study is to investigate the distribution of HLA-B27 in patients with AS of different ethnic groups in Qatar. Design and Setting. Study design was cross-sectional and the setting was rheumatology clinics of Hamad General Hospital in Qatar where most of ankylosing spondylitis patients are followed up. Patients and Methods. Patients with diagnosis of AS who met the New York modified criteria for AS were tested for HLA-B27. 119 patients were tested for HLA-B27: 66 Arabs, 52 Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bengalis, and Iranians), and one Western (Irish). Results. Of all the individuals, 82 were positive (69%) for HLA-B27. Among the Arabs, 49/66 were positive (74%). Among the Asians, 32/52 were positive (61%). Furthermore, Qatari patients (10 males and one female) 9 were positive (82%), 14/19 Jordanians/Palestinians were positive, and 9/10 (90%) Egyptians were positive. Among the Asians, 19/26 Indians were positive (73%), which was similar to the Arabs. Conclusion. HLA-B27 in our small group of Arabs is present in 74%. Comparison with other data will be presented in detail