Toward Lossless Homomorphic Encryption for Scientific Computation

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation into encrypted computations using the CKKS (Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song) scheme, with a focus on multi-dimensional vector operations and real-world applications. Through two meticulously designed experiments, the study explores the potential of the CKKS scheme in Super Computing and its implications for data privacy and computational efficiency. The first experiment reveals the promising applicability of CKKS to matrix multiplication, indicating marginal differences in Euclidean distance and near-to-zero mean square error across various matrix sizes. The second experiment, applied to a wildfire dataset, illustrates the feasibility of using encrypted machine learning models without significant loss in accuracy. The insights gleaned from the research set a robust foundation for future innovations, including the potential for GPU acceleration in CKKS computations within TenSEAL. Challenges such as noise budget computation, accuracy loss in multiplication, and the distinct characteristics of arithmetic operations in the context of CKKS are also discussed. The paper serves as a vital step towards understanding the complexities and potentials of encrypted computations, with broad implications for secure data processing and privacy preservation in various scientific domains

Teachers’ Perception Regarding Malpractices used in Examinations in Urban areas of District Peshawar

The study aimed at investigating factors associated with malpractices used in Secondary School Certificate Examination in the Urban Areas of District Peshawar. The main objectives of the study were to gather information from teachers about various cheating techniques used in examinations and know main factors that force students to cheat in examinations. Twenty (20) educational institutions for boys, including public and private, were purposively selected from urban areas of District Peshawar for the data collection. Questionnaires were distributed among 60 teachers of sampled High and Higher Secondary Schools in order to collect data. Majority of the respondents agreed to the fact that students usually use small chits as cheating technique in S.S.C. examination as they considered it safer and easier to hide from the examination conducting staff. The study further showed that the board officials, colleagues of the duty staff (examination conducting staff), fear of stopping of annual increments, pressure from the higher authority, poor standard of teaching, parents, and well reputation of institutions were key factors responsible for cheating in Secondary School Certificate Examination in urban areas of district Peshawar. An encouraging aspect of the study is also that the principals of the institutions were not involved in this unfair activity

Is Corruption Detrimental for Economic Growth? A Panel Data Analysis of Selected South Asian Economies

The debate regarding the influence of corruption on economic growth is increasing. Therefore, this study examines the impacts of corruption on economic growth of developing South Asian Economies between 2002-2017 period. The study uses fixed effects, random effects and robust least square estimators for the empirical estimation. The outcomes show that in developing South Asian countries corruption is working like grease and enhancing the economic growth. Nevertheless, the study based on the theoretical and empirical literature recommends these countries to formulate policies to lower corruption as it harms the institutional quality, adversely affects the investment decisions of the firms, system of meritocracy, and is considered globally as a moral decay of the society. These all in turn, in the long run adversely affects the economic growth

Hypovitaminosis D Causing Idiopathic Musculoskeletal Pain in Children

OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of hypovitaminosis D in children presenting with Idiopathic musculoskeletal pain IMSP). METHODOLOGY The cross-sectional research was carried out at Peshawar’s Hayatabad Medical Complex’s Department of Pediatrics. The study duration was 6 months. The study comprised 151 patients with non-specific musculoskeletal pain who were tested for vitamin D levels to diagnose hypovitaminosis. RESULTS The age range of the participants was 3 to 15 years with a male predominance of 72.8%. The sample’s average the weight was above the 25 percentile. Hypovitaminosis D was found in 23.2%. Decreased sun exposure was documented in 82.85% of cases with hypovitaminosis. Hypocalcemia, hypophosphatemia and increased alkaline phosphatase were documented in 71.4%, 11.4% and 42.8% participants respectively with hypovitaminosis. CONCLUSION Hypovitaminosis D Is one of the risk factors for non-specific musculoskeletal pain but the current study revealed only 23.2% of participants had hypovitaminosis and inadequate sun exposure was a major risk factor for hypovitaminosis

Impact of Transformational Leadership style on Innovative Behavior at Organizational Level: Managerial Perspectives

The aim of this research study was to explore the impact of transformational style of leadership on Innovative Behavior at organizational level and compare them based on gender, private and public organization. For the sample, 120 organizations (60 private and 60 public) and 240 managers were randomly selected for this research study. The transformational style of leadership was measured in this study through certain factors i.e., idealized influence intellectual and behavioral simulation, and idealized influence (attributed). There was no meaningful contrast with respect to gender, when the subjects were asked for their views about innovative behavior, instead both groups had shown similar point of view; as far as the public and private managerial perspectives were concerned, significant difference was observed. The policymakers should, it is recommended that, augment their efforts of hiring graduates who are capable enough

Zno/NiO coated multi-walled carbon nanotubes for textile dyes degradation

The nanocomposites of ZnO/NiO loaded Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs) were successfully fabricated using co-precipitation method. The synthesized photocatalyst were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, Diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for the determination of crystal structure, morphology, elemental composition and optical properties respectively. The photocatalytic activity of as prepared photocatalyst was determined by monitoring the degradation of methyl orange (an azo dye) under ultra-violet (280 nm) and visible (480 nm) irradiation. The Diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) exhibits absorbance tail around 400 nm, in the near UV region. SEM analysis shows the homogenous dispersion of ZnO and NiO on the surface of MWNTs. The efficiency for Photodegradation of ZnO coated MWNTs is shown to be greater than the efficiency of pristine ZnO. When NiO was loaded on the surface of MWNTs having ZnO coated layer, the activity was further enhanced and reached maximum for 3% NiO loading. The degradation in visible region is believed to be proceeding through self-sensitized degradation of pre-adsorbed dye. A different behavior for degradation was observed for ZnO coated MWNTs and ZnO/NiO coated MWNTs, which suggests that complete mineralization of azo dyes can be achieved in a self-sensitized degradation process after employing ZnO/NiO coated MWNTs. Keywords: ZnO/NiO coated MWNTs, Co-precipitation method, Photocatalyst, Dyes degradatio

SAT : Integrated Multi-agent Blackbox Security Assessment Tool using machine learning

The widespread adoption of eCommerce, iBanking, and eGovernment institutions has resulted in an exponential rise in the use of web applications. Due to a large number of users, web applications have become a prime target of cybercriminals who want to steal Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and disrupt business activities. Hence, there is a dire need to audit the websites and ensure information security. In this regard, several web vulnerability scanners are employed for vulnerability assessment of web applications but attacks are still increasing day by day. Therefore, a considerable amount of research has been carried out to measure the effectiveness and limitations of the publicly available web scanners. It is identified that most of the publicly available scanners possess weaknesses and do not generate desired results. In this paper, the evaluation of publicly available web vulnerability scanners is performed against the top ten OWASP11OWASP® The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is an online community that produces comprehensive articles, documentation, methodologies, and tools in the arena of web and mobile security. vulnerabilities and their performance is measured on the precision of their results. Based on these results, we proposed an Integrated Multi-Agent Blackbox Security Assessment Tool (SAT) for the security assessment of web applications. Research has proved that the vulnerabilities assessment results of the SAT are more extensive and accurate

Radiologic assessment of cervical canal stenosis using kang mri grading system: Do clinical symptoms correlate with imaging findings?

Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used in the evaluation of cervical canal stenosis and spinal cord compression. Kang et al. formulated a new MRI grading system for assessing canal stenosis which takes cord signal change into account. The purpose of the study was to determine the agreement between Kang\u27s grading system and neurological symptoms.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital between April 2014 and December 2015. Patients meeting inclusion criteria were enrolled. T2 sagittal and T2 axial MRI images were acquired and reported by a consultant neuroradiologist, in accordance with the MRI grading system suggested by Kang et al. Neurologic clinical symptoms were acquired by the history taken by the principal investigator. More than one neurologic symptoms and Kang MRI grade 2 or 3 were taken as positive evidence of cord compression resulting from canal stenosis.Results: Amongst 126 subjects, 54% were females. Mean age of patients was 50.3 ± 14.3 years (range 19-83 years). Average disease duration was 4.61 ± 3.73 (range 1-24 months). In the majority of the patients, the findings were found at the C5-C6 level. 65.1% of patients were identified positive for cervical canal stenosis by Kang grading system. Most common neurological symptoms were pain (99%) and numbness (56%). Cohen’s Kappa was run to evaluate the agreement between neurological symptoms and Kang grading system. There was a strong agreement between the two methods, K = 0.81 (95% CI 0.70-0.92), p \u3c 0.001.Conclusion: There was a substantial agreement between Kang\u27s grading system and the presence of clinical symptoms. The agreement was greatest in females, older patients, and those with longer duration of symptoms

A Reinforcement Learning Based Data Caching in Wireless Networks

Data caching has emerged as a promising technique to handle growing data traffic and backhaul congestion of wireless networks. However, there is a concern regarding how and where to place contents to optimize data access by the users. Data caching can be exploited close to users by deploying cache entities at Small Base Stations (SBSs). In this approach, SBSs cache contents through the core network during off-peak traffic hours. Then, SBSs provide cached contents to content-demanding users during peak traffic hours with low latency. In this paper, we exploit the potential of data caching at the SBS level to minimize data access delay. We propose an intelligence-based data caching mechanism inspired by an artificial intelligence approach known as Reinforcement Learning (RL). Our proposed RL-based data caching mechanism is adaptive to dynamic learning and tracks network states to capture users’ diverse and varying data demands. Our proposed approach optimizes data caching at the SBS level by observing users’ data demands and locations to efficiently utilize the limited cache resources of SBS. Extensive simulations are performed to evaluate the performance of proposed caching mechanism based on various factors such as caching capacity, data library size, etc. The obtained results demonstrate that our proposed caching mechanism achieves 4% performance gain in terms of delay vs. contents, 3.5% performance gain in terms of delay vs. users, 2.6% performance gain in terms of delay vs. cache capacity, 18% performance gain in terms of percentage traffic offloading vs. popularity skewness (γ), and 6% performance gain in terms of backhaul saving vs. cache capacity

Free Space Optics Transmission Performance Enhancement for Sustaining 5G High Capacity Data Services

Enhanced bandwidth issues for 5G system are fruitfully resolved by organizing free space optics (FSO) communication frameworks. The high bandwidth, the maximum number of channel transmission requirements, and high data rate have been boosted during the last years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The online services and digital applications have increased pressure on installed optical network models. In addition, the optical networks with high capacity transmission produce nonlinear distortions, which degrade system efficiency. This paper presents a mixed FSO and fiber network to tackle the factors of nonlinearities and enrich the system capacity and range. Furthermore, the issues related to radio frequency, FSO pointing, and co-channel interference are considered in this work. The theoretical and simulation structures are validated using advanced measuring parameters, such as bit error rate (BER), peak to average power ratio (PAPR), cumulative distribution function (CDF), and outage probability. The nonlinear factors are addressed successfully, and the capacity is developed from current models. Finally, the proposed model’s limitations and future direction are discussed in this paper