A Study of Potential Security and Safety Vulnerabilities in Cyber-Physical Systems

The work in this dissertation focuses on two examples of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), integrations of communication and monitoring capabilities to control a physical system, that operate in adversarial environments. That is to say, it is possible for individuals with malicious intent to gain access to various components of the CPS, disrupt normal operation, and induce harmful impacts. Such a deliberate action will be referred to as an attack. Therefore, some possible attacks against two CPSs will be studied in this dissertation and, when possible, solutions to handle such attacks will also be suggested. The first CPS of interest is vehicular platoons wherein it is possible for a number of partially-automated vehicles to drive autonomously towards a certain destination with as little human driver involvement as possible. Such technology will ultimately allow passengers to focus on other tasks, such as reading or watching a movie, rather than on driving. In this dissertation three possible attacks against such platoons are studied. The first is called ”the disbanding attack” wherein the attacker is capable of disrupting one platoon and also inducing collisions in another intact (non-attacked) platoon vehicles. To handle such an attack, two solutions are suggested: The first solution is formulated using Model Predictive Control (MPC) optimal technique, while the other uses a heuristic approach. The second attack is False-Data Injection (FDI) against the platooning vehicular sensors is analyzed using the reachability analysis. This analysis allows us to validate whether or not it is possible for FDI attacks to drive a platoon towards accidents. Finally, mitigation strategies are suggested to prevent an attacker-controlled vehicle, one which operates inside a platoon and drives unpredictably, from causing collisions. These strategies are based on sliding mode control technique and once engaged in the intact vehicles, collisions are reduced and eventual control of those vehicles will be switched from auto to human to further reduce the impacts of the attacker-controlled vehicle. The second CPS of interest in this dissertation is Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems used in smart automated buildings to provide an acceptable indoor environment in terms of thermal comfort and air quality for the occupants For these systems, an MPC technique based controller is formulated in order to track a desired temperature in each zone of the building. Some previous studies indicate the possibility of an attacker to manipulate the measurements of temperature sensors, which are installed at different sections of the building, and thereby cause them to read below or above the real measured temperature. Given enough time, an attacker could monitor the system, understand how it works, and decide which sensor(s) to target. Eventually, the attacker may be able to deceive the controller, which uses the targeted sensor(s) readings and raises the temperature of one or multiple zones to undesirable levels, thereby causing discomfort for occupants in the building. In order to counter such attacks, Moving Target Defense (MTD) technique is utilized in order to constantly change the sensors sets used by the MPC controllers and, as a consequence, reduce the impacts of sensor attacks

Testing of Level Shifters in Multiple Voltage Designs

The use of multiple voltages for different cores is becoming a widely accepted technique for efficient power management. Level shifters are used as interfaces between voltage domains. Through extensive transistor level simulations of resistive open, bridging and resistive short faults, we have classified the testing of level shifters into PASSIVE and ACTIVE modes. We examine if high test coverage can be achieved in the PASSIVE mode. We consider resistive opens and shorts and show that, for testing purposes, consideration of purely digital fault effects is sufficient. Thus conventional digital DfT can be employed to test level shifters. In all cases, we conclude that using sets of single supply voltages for testing is sufficient

Dynamic Voltage Scaling Aware Delay Fault Testing

The application of Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS) to reduce energy consumption may have a detrimental impact on the quality of manufacturing tests employed to detect permanent faults. This paper analyses the influence of different voltage/frequency settings on fault detection within a DVS application. In particular, the effect of supply voltage on different types of delay faults is considered. This paper presents a study of these problems with simulation results. We have demonstrated that the test application time increases as we reduce the test voltage. We have also shown that for newer technologies we do not have to go to very low voltage levels for delay fault testing. We conclude that it is necessary to test at more than one operating voltage and that the lowest operating voltage does not necessarily give the best fault cover

Pharmacy and formulation support for paediatric clinical trials in England

Availability and sourcing of investigational drugs for paediatric clinical trials is known to be a challenge for investigator-led clinical trials. The National Institute of Health Research Clinical Research Network: Children (CRN: Children) provides support for formulations and pharmacy related issues to researchers planning and setting up paediatric clinical trials within England. This paper reviews pharmacy and formulation support provided to a consecutive series of investigator-led clinical studies supported by CRN:Children. Case studies are included to describe some of the unique pharmaceutical challenges encountered. 44 trials were reviewed and a total of 103 products were required to support these clinical trials. UK authorised products were suitable for use for 62 of these 103 products. In the remaining 41 cases, 4 could be sourced as an authorised product within the European Union and the remaining 37 required bespoke manufacture. Bespoke manufacture of an investigational drug or placebo is costly. Typical costs for the initial development and testing of a bespoke investigational drug or placebo were in the range of £30,000–100,000 per product. The estimated cost for 19 out of 45 trials was available; in summary, the costs on a per patient per day of therapy basis ranged from under £1 to almost £600; short studies involving multiple agents are obviously the most expensive. This range is dependent upon the need for bespoke manufacture and also the number of participants within the trial. The arrangements for investigational drug supply can greatly affect the study design, regulatory requirements, trial logistics, as well as the total cost of research. As investigational product related activities are often costly, necessitating months of advance planning, it is imperative that specialist inputs are sought from the very start of the study design and planning process

Combined Time and Information Redundancy for SEU-Tolerance in Energy-Efficient Real-Time Systems

Recently the trade-off between energy consumption and fault-tolerance in real-time systems has been highlighted. These works have focused on dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) to reduce dynamic energy dissipation and on time redundancy to achieve transient-fault tolerance. While the time redundancy technique exploits the available slack time to increase the fault-tolerance by performing recovery executions, DVS exploits slack time to save energy. Therefore we believe there is a resource conflict between the time-redundancy technique and DVS. The first aim of this paper is to propose the usage of information redundancy to solve this problem. We demonstrate through analytical and experimental studies that it is possible to achieve both higher transient fault-tolerance (tolerance to single event upsets (SEU)) and less energy using a combination of information and time redundancy when compared with using time redundancy alone. The second aim of this paper is to analyze the interplay of transient-fault tolerance (SEU-tolerance) and adaptive body biasing (ABB) used to reduce static leakage energy, which has not been addressed in previous studies. We show that the same technique (i.e. the combination of time and information redundancy) is applicable to ABB-enabled systems and provides more advantages than time redundancy alone

STABILIZATION POND FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

This research is concerned with study and check the suitability of waste stabilization ponds (WSPs) for treating wastewater in Al-Dewaniyah province by taking a sample of community of 10000 population.Experimental work had three cases depending on many considerations such as economical and specification of final effluent. A model of two ponds (facultative and aerobic) in series was used as first case of experimental work. Then third pond with aeration process to aerobic pond were added to the series as second case to improve the effluent. At last, sand filter was used to polish the final effluent from aerobic pond.The three ponds had the same surface area (5.75m*2m) but with different depths, where it was 2m for anaerobic pond, 1.5m for facultative pond and 0.75m for aerobic pond. From the tests taken for the three cases, the results obtained for the last two cases were much better when compared with first case. Sand filter contributed in improving final effluent by decreasing total suspended solid (TSS) also in increasing removal efficiency of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). At the end, the results of this work could be an invitation to use waste stabilization pond for wastewater treatment in rural areas or even small communities but it may need more examinations to get best results

A Systematic Review of Vehicle License Plate Recognition Algorithms Based on Image Segmentation

Recently, vehicle license plate recognition (VLPR) is a very significant topic in smart transportation. License plate (LP) has become an important and difficult research problem in recent years due to its difficulties such as detection speed, noise, effects, various lighting, and others. In the same context, most VLPR algorithms include should have many methods to be able to identify LP images based on different letters, colors, languages, complex backgrounds, distortions, hazardous situations, obstructions, vehicle speeds, vertical or horizontal lines, horizontal slopes, and lighting.  Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive review of current VLPR algorithms in the context of detection, and segmentation. Where, available VLPR algorithms are classified according to image segmentation methods (characteristics, and features) and are compared in terms of simplicity, complexity, uptime, problems, and obstacles

Biodegradation Effect of some Bacterial Isolates on some Endocrine Disruptors (EDCS)

EDCs raised a certain concern for living health began since last century, via interfere with natural hormone functions and produce reversible or irreversible biological effects. Bisphenol (BPA) is an organic compound that causing human health risks. Different bacterial spp. has biodegradation ability for wide range of EDC. 4 bacterial spp. were isolated and worked on (Pseudomonas auroginosa, Pseudomona lutoi, Proteus penneri, and E.coli). The effect of substrate tolerate bisphenol (5 mg/ ml) using the well diffusion method were investigated. The biodegradation effect of bacterial isolated on breakdown bisphenol and its derivatives using UV vis spectrophotometer were studied and comparing in various incubation time and temperature to assess the effect of the physical conditions on the bacterial ability of bisphenol degradation. Proteus penneri showed a significant ability to resistance to para-phenol and meta-phenol, while highly sensitive to ortho- aminophenol and para- creso, Pseudomonas aeroginosa and Pseudomonas lutiola sensitive to meta- aminophenol, while resist to degraded three phenol compounds (para, ortho aminophenol, and para crysol). Data showed a significant effect for ps. Lutiola after 15 days of incubation followed by p. penorri and E.coli. to degraded phenol chemical compounds. Data demonstaed that bacterial spp. ps. Lutiola has an obvious degradation effect for bisphenol compound after 15 days of incubation however, Sp. euroginosa showed an absolutely different behavior toward bisphenol which showed an raising absorbance after the 15 days of incubation. The ability of different local bacterial isolated to breakdown the phenol and its derivitives in surface water was investigated

Gestational Age Estimation Based on Fetal Pelvimetry on Fetal Ultrasound in Iraqi Women

Ultrasound is an integral part of obstetric practice, and assessment of gestational age (GA) is a central element of obstetric ultrasonography. Sonographic estimation of GA is derived from calculations based on fetal measurements. Numerous equations for GA calculation from fetal biometry have been adopted in routine practice. This study reports a new method of estimating GA in the second and third trimester using interischial distance (IID), the distance between the two ischial primary ossification centers, on fetal ultrasound. Four hundred women with uncomplicated normal singleton pregnancies from 16 weeks to term were examined. Standard fetal obstetric ultrasound was done measuring biparietal diameter (BPD) and femur length (FL) for each fetus. The IID, in millimeters, was correlated with the GA in weeks based upon the BPD and FL individually, and the BPD and FL together. Statistical analysis showed strong correlation between the IID and GA calculated from the FL with correlation coefficient (r =0.989, P \u3c 0.001). Strong linear correlation was also found between the IID and GA based upon BPD and BPD+FL. Further statistical analysis using regression equations also showed that the IID was slightly wider in female fetuses, but this difference was not statistically significant. Resulting from this analysis, we have arrived at an easy-to-use equation: GA Weeks = (IID mm + 8) ±1 week. We feel this method can be especially applicable in the developing world, where midwives may not have access to software for fetal biometry in their basic handheld ultrasound machines. Even more sophisticated machines may not come with loaded software for obstetrics analysis. There are several limitations to this study, discussed below. We recommend further studies correlating the IID with other biometric parameters