Corrigendum to New Generalized Cyclotomic Binary Sequences of Period p2p^2

New generalized cyclotomic binary sequences of period $p^2$ are proposed in this paper, where $p$ is an odd prime. The sequences are almost balanced and their linear complexity is determined. The result shows that the proposed sequences have very large linear complexity if $p$ is a non-Wieferich prime.Comment: In the appended corrigendum, we pointed out that the proof of Lemma 6 in the paper only holds for $f=2$ and gave a proof for any $f=2^r$ when $p$ is a non-Wieferich prim

Industrial brine characterisation and modelling

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Industrial wastewater contains many soluble inorganic and organic components and solid particles. This study focused on inorganic industrial hypersaline brines. Chemical engineering presents a variety of mechanical, thermal, biological and chemical processes capable of treating hypersaline brines to the standard required by legislation. However, some of these technologies are inefficient, costly and outdated and are not applicable in solving modern brine accumulation problems

EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN FACILITATING REHABILITATION PROGRAMMES FOR INCARCERATED MALE OFFENDERS

Social Wor

Coping with racism : exploring the experiences of the post-1994 generation of black students at a historically whites-only university in South Africa

Reported experiences of Black students appear to bear evidence that racism can be manifested in a number of ways and across different experiential dimensions, namely institutional, individual, or internal dimensions. This research study focuses on how Black students cope with institutional racism and overt acts of racism at a historically Whites-only university. Institutionally, racism persists systemically throughout the housing, education, judicial, employment, and healthcare systems in South Africa. By contrast, individual racism consists of social avoidance and social exclusion, which can be explained as the attitudes and beliefs held against minorities, in the form of microaggressions. The aim of this study was to explore how the post-1994 generation of Black students copes with racism. In light of the aim of the study, social stress theory is the lens through which the findings were interpreted. The social stress theory suggests that due to individuals’ disadvantaged social standing, they have an increased probability of being exposed to stressors. Six Black students were interviewed so that they could share their experiences of racism and how they coped, using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis (TA) was used as the method of data analysis to elucidate these experiences. The findings show that Black students experience overt acts of racism and institutional racism. Six themes of coping mechanisms were identified: academic determination, boldness, physically and emotionally escaping, faith, support, and inclusion. Fundamentally, the findings demonstrate that Black students adopt adaptive and maladaptive means of coping with their experiences of racism.Mini Dissertation (MA (Counselling Pyschology))--University of Pretoria, 2021.PsychologyMA (Counselling Psychology)Unrestricte

Radiation Shielding Analysis and Optimisation for the MinPET Kimberlite Sorting Facility using the Monte Carlo Calculation Code, MCNPX

Abstract: Radiation shielding calculations, analysis and optimization process carried out in order to design shielding for a Mineral-Positron Emission Tomography (MinPET) facility are presented. PET is a nuclear imaging technique commonly used in diagnostic medicine. The technique is based on the detection of 511 keV coincident and co-linear photons produced from the annihilation of a positron (produced by a positron emitter) and a nearby electron. This technique is currently being developed for mineral detection and quantification, particularly diamonds in kimberlite rocks through the MinPET facility. The facility is aimed at improving diamond mining through the early detection of the diamond bearing rocks. High energy photons are produced via bremsstrahlung when a high energy, 40 MeV 5mA, electron beam impinges on a high density target - tungsten..

Evaluating machine learning-based intrusion detection systems with explainable AI: enhancing transparency and interpretability

Machine Learning (ML)-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are integral to securing modern IoT networks but often suffer from a lack of transparency, functioning as “black boxes” with opaque decision-making processes. This study enhances IDS by integrating Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), improving interpretability and trustworthiness while maintaining high predictive performance. Using the UNSW-NB15 dataset, comprising over 2.5 million records and nine diverse attack types, we developed and evaluated multiple ML models, including Decision Trees, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), XGBoost, Random Forest, CatBoost, Logistic Regression, and Gaussian Naive Bayes. By incorporating XAI techniques such as LIME, SHAP, and ELI5, we demonstrated that XAI-enhanced models provide actionable insights into feature importance and decision processes. The experimental results revealed that XGBoost and CatBoost achieved the highest accuracy of 87%, with a false positive rate of 0.07 and a false negative rate of 0.12. These models stood out for their superior performance and interpretability, highlighting key features such as Source-to-Destination Time-to-Live (sttl) and Destination Service Count (ct_srv_dst) as critical indicators of malicious activity. The study also underscores the methodological and empirical contributions of integrating XAI techniques with ML models, offering a balanced approach between accuracy and transparency. From a practical standpoint, this research equips human analysts with tools to better understand and trust IDS predictions, facilitating quicker responses to security threats. Compared to existing studies, this work bridges the gap between high-performing ML models and their real-world applicability by focusing on explainability. Future research directions include applying the proposed methodology to more complex datasets and exploring advancements in XAI techniques for broader cybersecurity challenges

Deep Attacks of a Certificateless Signature Scheme

Certificateless public key cryptography is an attractive paradigm since it eliminates the use of certificates in traditional public key cryptography and alleviates the inherent key escrow problem in identity-based cryptography. Recently, Xiong et al. proposed a certificateless signature scheme and proved that their scheme is existentially unforgeable against adaptive chosen message attack under the random oracle model. He et al. pointed out that Xiong et al.’s scheme is insecure against the Type II adversary. But, their forged signatures are not random, and their improved scheme has the same security defects as Xiong et al.’s scheme. In this paper, we present two malicious-but-passive KGC attack methods on Xiong et al.’s scheme and our results show that their scheme is insecure against malicious-but-passive KGC attack

Aqueous Extract of Sorindeia Juglandifolia Leaves Protects Methotrexate-Induced Liver and Kidney Damage in Rat

Introduction: Liver and kidney affection is a life-threatening disease caused by factors including drug-based treatment. Treatment based on methotrexate could result in liver and kidney damages. The study evaluates the preventive effects of Sorindeia juglandifolia leaves on methotrexate-induced liver and kidney impairment in rat. Methods: Healthy rats divided into 6 groups daily received distilled water, methotrexate (20 mg/kg), sub-cutaneous injection of L-carnitin (500 mg/kg) and methotrexate and the plant extract doses of 150, 250 and 350 mg/kg and methotrexate for 10 days. During treatment, body weight was recorded. At the end of the treatment, animals were sacrificed; venous blood were collected for haematological and biochemical analysis. Liver and kidney were collected for oxidative markers and histological examination. Results: The consecutive treatment of animals with plant extract and methotrexate showed a significant prevention of the body weight decrease and enhancement of the relative weight of liver and kidney. Sorindeia. juglandifolia extract also protected from the significant increase in transaminase activities, bilirubin and protein level, hypercholesterolemia, atherogenic index, and in the kidney from hypercreatininemia and the increase in serum urea level. The extract prevented the decrease of sodium level and glomerular filtration. Plant extract improved reactive oxygen species detoxification agents and protected from the histological disorganization of the liver and kidney tissues, observed in the MTX control. Conclusion: Sorindeia juglandifolia leaves extract expressed hepatorenal protective properties and could be useful to prevent liver and kidney damage induce by methotrexate

Microstructure-Reconfigured Graphene Oxide Aerogel Metamaterials for Ultrarobust Directional Sensing at Human-Machine Interfaces.

Graphene aerogels hold huge promise for the development of high-performance pressure sensors for future human-machine interfaces due to their ordered microstructure and conductive network. However, their application is hindered by the limited strain sensing range caused by the intrinsic stiffness of the porous microstructure. Herein, an anisotropic cross-linked chitosan and reduced graphene oxide (CCS-rGO) aerogel metamaterial is realized by reconfiguring the microstructure from a honeycomb to a buckling structure at the dedicated cross-section plane. The reconfigured CCS-rGO aerogel shows directional hyperelasticity with extraordinary durability (no obvious structural damage after 20 000 cycles at a directional compressive strain of ≤0.7). The CCS-rGO aerogel pressure sensor exhibits an ultrahigh sensitivity of 121.45 kPa-1, an unprecedented sensing range, and robust mechanical and electrical performance. The aerogel sensors are demonstrated to monitor human motions, control robotic hands, and even integrate into a flexible keyboard to play music, which opens a wide application potential in future human-machine interfaces