A Spontaneous Wireless Ad Hoc Trusted Neighbor Network Creation Protocol

[EN] Spontaneous networks lack an a priori communication infrastructure, the neighbors are unknown right after the deployment, and they are used during a period of time and in a certain location. In this paper, we present a new randomized creation model of a spontaneous wireless ad hoc network based on trusted neighbors. The idea is to manage the neighbor discovery with the exchange of identity cards, and the checking of a signature establishes a relationship based on trust of the neighbors. To asses the performance of our randomized trusted network proposal and compare it against an existing deterministic protocol used as reference, we relied on Castalia 3.2 simulator, regarding 4 metrics: time, energy consumption, throughput, and number of discoveries vs packet sent ratio. We found that our proposal outperforms the reference protocol in terms of time, energy, and discoveries vs packet sent ratio in a one-hop setting, while it outperforms the reference protocol regarding all 4 metrics in multihop environments. We also evaluated our proposal through simulations varying the transmission probability and proved that it does not require to know the number of nodes if a fixed transmission probability is set, providing reasonable results. Moreover, our proposal is based on collision detection, it knows when to terminate the process, it does not require a transmission schedule, and it follows more realistic assumptions. In addition, a qualitative comparison is carried out, comparing our proposal against existing protocols from the literature.This work has been partially supported by the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" in the "Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica de Excelencia, Subprograma Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento" within the project under Grant TIN2017-84802-C2-1-P. This work has also been partially supported by European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR.Sorribes, JV.; Peñalver Herrero, ML.; Lloret, J. (2021). A Spontaneous Wireless Ad Hoc Trusted Neighbor Network Creation Protocol. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (Online). 2021:1-20. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/5531923120202

Energy-aware Randomized Neighbor Discovery Protocol based on Collision Detection in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

[EN] In wireless ad hoc networks, neighbor discovery is necessary as an initial step. In this work we present LECDH (Low Energy Collision Detection Hello), an energy-aware randomized handshake-based neighbor discovery protocol for static environments. We carried out simulations through Castalia 3.2 simulator and compared LECDH with an existing protocol EAH (Energy Aware Hello) used as reference. We conclude that the proposal outperforms the reference protocol both in one-hop and multi-hop environments in terms of Energy consumption, Discovery time, Number of discovered neighbors, Throughput, and Discoveries per packet sent, for high duty cycles. Moreover, for low number of nodes in LECDH, as the duty cycle is reduced the performance is better according to all 5 metrics in both environments. Overall, we found that our proposal follows more realistic assumptions and still allows nodes to succeed at discovering all their neighbors almost with probability 1. Moreover, a qualitative comparison of the reference solution and our proposal is included in this paper.This work has been partially supported by the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" in the "Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica de Excelencia, Subprograma Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento" within the project under Grant TIN2017-84802-C2-1-P. This work has also been partially supported by European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR. This work has also been partially founded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia through the post-doctoral PAID-10-20 program.Sorribes, JV.; Peñalver Herrero, ML.; Jimenez, JM.; Sendra, S. (2022). Energy-aware Randomized Neighbor Discovery Protocol based on Collision Detection in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks. Mobile Networks and Applications (Online). 28:31-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-022-01995-731482

Behavioural indicators of innovators. A search protocol for a systematic literature review

[EN] Introducing greater innovation into the culture and capabilities of organizations worldwide, a requirement of today¿s society,is an issue currently in need of scholarly attention. The present investigation is being undertaken within the context of FINCODA, a European Project involved in the development of new reliable tools for innovation competences assessment. The study aims at devising a search protocol for a systematic review of the literature on behavioral indicators of innovators published from 2000 onwards, indexed in Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. The specific keywords used in the search include the following fields: (1) workplace; (2) innovative behaviour, innovative work behaviour and individual innovation; (3) indicators. A preliminary search with these keywords retrieved 1,350 references. Then, the process of filtering data by title and abstract to meet inclusive and exclusive criteria refined the search. The materials identified are expected to prove useful in the definition of behavioural indicators of innovative people at work. Moreover, they will help in the analysis of the relation of the descriptors found with the innovative indicators of a barometer created within a previous European Project, INCODE, and in the further design of a tool to measure employees¿ innovation.This research has been supported by the Erasmus+ Project FINCODA, Framework for Innovation Competences Development and Assessment_554493-EPP-1-2014-1-FI-EPPKA2-KA (The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of th e authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein) and by the Project PIME 2015 - 2016 A/09_Evaluación de los indicadores del comportamiento innovador en el alumno universitario, at th e Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain).Montero Fleta, MB.; Pérez Peñalver, MJ.; Aznar-Mas, LE. (2017). Behavioural indicators of innovators. A search protocol for a systematic literature review. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. 3(1):113-120. https://doi.org/10.18844/gjhss.v3i1.1757S1131203

Identification And Classification of Behavioural Indicators to Assess Innovation Competence

[EN] Purpose: Taking a literature review as a point of departure, the main aim of this paper was the identification of the behavioural indicators of innovators at the workplace, and their classification. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was addressed by means of a search in Elsevier¿s Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. By applying inclusive and exclusive criteria, references were obtained with the search protocol. After filtering and scanning, there was a selection of references plus other articles added by the snowball effect. The final phase undertaken was the classification of the main indicators raised in the publications selected. Findings: Our main contribution was the identification of the behavioural indicators of innovators at the workplace and their classification in five dimensions. Practical implications: This research may yield some light on the assessment of innovative workplace performance of individuals in organisations, as well as on the development of the innovative competence of students in academic institutions as a challenge to meet the needs of both professionals and Higher Education institutions. Originality/value: Some authors have studied the characteristics of innovative people mainly focusing on cognitive abilities, personality, motivation and knowledge. We have sought to offer a better understanding of the phenomenon of individual innovation in organisations, through the analysis of behavioural indicators, an issue that has not been studied from this perspective previously.This research has been supported by the Erasmus+ Project FINCODA (2015-2017). Framework for Innovation Competences Development and Assessment_554493-EPP-1-2014-1-FI-EPPKA2-KA (The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein) and by the Project PIME 2015-2016A/09_Evaluacion de los indicadores del comportamiento innovador en el alumno universitario, at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (Spain)Pérez Peñalver, MJ.; Aznar-Mas, LE.; Montero Fleta, MB. (2018). Identification And Classification of Behavioural Indicators to Assess Innovation Competence. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management. 11(1):87-115. https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2552S8711511

Reliable Bidirectional Data Transfer Approach for the Internet of Secured Medical Things Using ZigBee Wireless Network

[EN] Nowadays, the Internet of Things (IoT) performs robust services for real-time applications in monitoring communication systems and generating meaningful information. The ZigBee devices offer low latency and manageable costs for wireless communication and support the process of physical data collection. Some biosensing systems comprise IoT-based ZigBee devices to monitor patient healthcare attributes and alert healthcare professionals for needed action. However, most of them still face unstable and frequent data interruption issues due to transmission service intrusions. Moreover, the medical data is publicly available using cloud services, and communicated through the smart devices to specialists for evaluation and disease diagnosis. Therefore, the applicable security analysis is another key factor for any medical system. This work proposed an approach for reliable network supervision with the internet of secured medical things using ZigBee networks for a smart healthcare system (RNM-SC). It aims to improve data systems with manageable congestion through load-balanced devices. Moreover, it also increases security performance in the presence of anomalies and offers data routing using the bidirectional heuristics technique. In addition, it deals with more realistic algorithm to associate only authorized devices and avoid the chances of compromising data. In the end, the communication between cloud and network applications is also protected from hostile actions, and only certified end-users can access the data. The proposed approach was tested and analyzed in Network Simulator (NS-3), and, compared to existing solutions, demonstrated significant and reliable performance improvements in terms of network throughput by 12%, energy consumption by 17%, packet drop ratio by 37%, end-to-end delay by 18%, routing complexity by 37%, and tampered packets by 37%.This research is supported by Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics Lab (AIDA) CCIS Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Authors are thankful for the support.Rehman, A.; Haseeb, K.; Fati, SM.; Lloret, J.; Peñalver Herrero, ML. (2021). Reliable Bidirectional Data Transfer Approach for the Internet of Secured Medical Things Using ZigBee Wireless Network. Applied Sciences. 11(21):1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11219947S116112

Multi-Focused Laboratory Experiments Based on Quorum Sensing and Quorum Quenching for Acquiring Microbial Physiology Concepts

After a time away from the classrooms and laboratories due to the global pandemic, the return to the teaching activities during the semester represented a challenge to both teachers and students. Our particular situation in a Microbial Physiology course was the necessity of imparting in a shorter time, laboratory practices that usually take longer. This article describes a two-week long laboratory exercise that covers several concepts in an interrelated way: conjugation as a gene transfer mechanism, regulation of microbial physiology, production of secondary metabolites, degradation of macromolecules and biofilm formation. Utilizing a Quorum Quenching (QQ) strategy, the Quorum Sensing (QS) system of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is first attenuated. Then, phenotypes regulated by QS are evidenced. QS is a regulatory mechanism of the microbial physiology that relays on signal molecules. QS is related in P. aeruginosa to several virulence factors, some of which are exploited in the laboratory practices presented in this work. QQ is phenomenon by which QS is interrupted or attenuated. We utilized a QQ approach based on the enzymatic degradation of the P. aeruginosa QS signals in order to put in evidence QS-regulated traits that are relevant for our Microbial Physiology course.Fil: Torres, Mariela Analía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Valdez, Alejandra Leonor. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Olea, Carolina de Lourdes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; ArgentinaFil: Nieto Peñalver, Carlos Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos; Argentin

Collision Avoidance Based Neighbor Discovery in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

[EN] Neighbor discovery is an important first step after the deployment of ad hoc wireless networks since they are a type of network that do not provide a communications infrastructure right after their deployment, the devices have radio transceivers which provide a limited transmission range, and there is a lack of knowledge of the potential neighbors. In this work two proposals to overcome the neighbor discovery in static one-hop environments in the presence of collisions, are presented. We performed simulations through Castalia 3.2, to compare the performance of the proposals against that for two protocols from the literature, i.e. PRR and Hello, and evaluate them according to six metrics. According to simulation results, the Leader-based proposal (O(N)) outperforms the other protocols in terms of neighbor discovery time, throughput, discoveries vs packets sent ratio, and packets received vs sent ratio, and the TDMA-based proposal is the slowest (O(N-2)) and presents the worst results regarding energy consumption, and discoveries vs packets sent ratio. However, both proposals follow a predetermined transmission schedule that allows them to discover all the neighbors with probability 1, and use a feedback mechanism. We also performed an analytical study for both proposals according to several metrics. Moreover, the Leader-based solution can only properly operate in one-hop environments, whereas the TDMA-based proposal is appropriate for its use in multi-hop environments.This work has been partially supported by the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" in the "Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica de Excelencia, Subprograma Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento" within the project under Grant TIN2017-84802-C2-1-P. This work has also been partially supported by European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR.Sorribes, JV.; Peñalver Herrero, ML.; Lloret, J.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM. (2022). Collision Avoidance Based Neighbor Discovery in Ad Hoc Wireless Networks. Wireless Personal Communications. 125(2):987-1011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-021-09091-x9871011125

Randomized neighbor discovery protocols with collision detection for static multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks

[EN] Neighbor discovery represents a first step after the deployment of wireless ad hoc networks, since the nodes that form them are equipped with limited-range radio transceivers, and they typically do not know their neighbors. In this paper two randomized neighbor discovery approaches, called CDH and CDPRR, based on collision detection for static multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks, are presented. Castalia 3.2 simulator has been used to compare our proposed protocols against two protocols chosen from the literature and used as reference: the PRR, and the Hello protocol. For the experiments, we chose five metrics: the neighbor discovery time, the number of discovered neighbors, the energy consumption, the throughput and the number of discovered neighbors versus packets sent ratio. According to the results obtained through simulation, we can conclude that our randomized proposals outperform both Hello and PRR protocols in the presence of collisions regarding all five metrics, for both one-hop and multi-hop scenarios. As novelty compared to the reference protocols, both proposals allow nodes to discover all their neighbors with probability 1, they are based on collision detection and know when to terminate the neighbor discovery process. Furthermore, qualitative comparisons of the existing protocols and the proposals are available in this paper. Moreover, CDPRR presents better results in terms of time, energy consumption and number of discovered neighbors versus packets sent ratio. We found that both proposals achieve to operate under more realistic assumptions. Furthermore, CDH does not need to know the number of nodes in the network.This work has been partially supported by the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" in the "Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnica de Excelencia, Subprograma Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento" within the project under Grant TIN2017-84802-C2-1-P. This work has also been partially supported by European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR.Sorribes, JV.; Peñalver Herrero, ML.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Lloret, J. (2021). Randomized neighbor discovery protocols with collision detection for static multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks. Telecommunication Systems. 77(3):577-596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11235-021-00763-457759677

Propionibacterium acidipropionici CRL1198 influences the production of acids and the growth of bacterial genera stimulated by inulin in a murine model of cecal slurries

Different attempts have been made to improve the health status of humans and animals by increasing the intestinal production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) derived from non-digestible carbohydrates fermentation. In this paper we investigate the in vitro production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) after addition of inulin, propionibacteria or a combination of both in an experimental model of mice cecal slurries. The development of bacterial genera which are usually stimulated by inulin addition was also investigated. According to our experimental data, acetic acid and butyric acids concentrations increased after incubation in slurries that had no supplements. By contrast, butyric acid concentrations remained in the basal value when supplements were used. Fermentation of only inulin did not increase the concentration of total SCFA. Propionibacterium acidipropionici CRL1198 improved the production of propionic acid in cecal slurries when it was added alone, but the effect was more noticeable in the combination with inulin. A modulation of the global fermentative activity of the cecal microbiota was evidenced by the increase on the ratio propionic acid/SCFA in supplementations with propionibacteria. Statistical analysis of data demonstrated that samples from homogenates with propionibacteria alone or combined with inulin belong to the same cluster. The presence of propionibacteria limited the growth of Bacteroides fragilis and Clostridium hystoliticum groups in slurries with and without inulin. The growth of Bifidobacterium was not modified and the stimulating effect of inulin on lactobacilli disappeared in the presence of propionibacteria. In conclusion, dairy propionibacteria are potential candidates to develop new functional foods helpful to ensure the intestinal production of SCFA during inulin supplementation and to control the overgrowth of bacteria belonging to Bacteroides and Clostridium genera.Fil: Lorenzo Pisarello, Maria Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Gultemirian, Maria de Lourdes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Nieto Peñalver, Carlos Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Perez Chaia, Adriana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentin

Spontaneous ad hoc mobile cloud computing network

Cloud computing helps users and companies to share computing resources instead of having local servers or personal devices to handle the applications. Smart devices are becoming one of the main information processing devices. Their computing features are reaching levels that let them create a mobile cloud computing network. But sometimes they are not able to create it and collaborate actively in the cloud because it is difficult for them to build easily a spontaneous network and configure its parameters. For this reason, in this paper, we are going to present the design and deployment of a spontaneous ad hoc mobile cloud computing network. In order to perform it, we have developed a trusted algorithm that is able to manage the activity of the nodes when they join and leave the network. The paper shows the network procedures and classes that have been designed. Our simulation results using Castalia show that our proposal presents a good efficiency and network performance even by using high number of nodes.Lacuesta, R.; Lloret, J.; Sendra, S.; Peñalver Herrero, ML. (2014). Spontaneous ad hoc mobile cloud computing network. Scientific World Journal. 2014:1-19. doi:10.1155/2014/232419S1192014Rodrigues, J. J. P. C., Zhou, L., Mendes, L. D. P., Lin, K., & Lloret, J. (2012). Distributed media-aware flow scheduling in cloud computing environment. Computer Communications, 35(15), 1819-1827. doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2012.03.004Feeney, L. M., Ahlgren, B., & Westerlund, A. (2001). Spontaneous networking: an application oriented approach to ad hoc networking. IEEE Communications Magazine, 39(6), 176-181. doi:10.1109/35.925687Fernando, N., Loke, S. W., & Rahayu, W. (2013). Mobile cloud computing: A survey. Future Generation Computer Systems, 29(1), 84-106. doi:10.1016/j.future.2012.05.023Lacuesta, R., Lloret, J., Garcia, M., & Peñalver, L. (2013). A Secure Protocol for Spontaneous Wireless Ad Hoc Networks Creation. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 24(4), 629-641. doi:10.1109/tpds.2012.168Lacuesta, R., Lloret, J., Garcia, M., & Peñalver, L. (2011). Two secure and energy-saving spontaneous ad-hoc protocol for wireless mesh client networks. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 34(2), 492-505. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2010.03.024Lacuesta, R., Lloret, J., Garcia, M., & Peñalver, L. (2010). A Spontaneous Ad Hoc Network to Share WWW Access. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2010(1). doi:10.1155/2010/232083Lacuesta, R., Palacios-Navarro, G., Cetina, C., Peñalver, L., & Lloret, J. (2012). Internet of things: where to be is to trust. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2012(1). doi:10.1186/1687-1499-2012-203Capkun, S., Buttyan, L., & Hubaux, J. (2003). Self-organized public-key management for mobile ad hoc networks. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 2(1), 52-64. doi:10.1109/tmc.2003.1195151Goodman, J., & Chandrakasan, A. (2000). An Energy Efficient Reconfigurable Public-Key Cryptography Processor Architecture. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 175-190. doi:10.1007/3-540-44499-8_13Mayrhofer, R., Ortner, F., Ferscha, A., & Hechinger, M. (2003). Securing Passive Objects in Mobile Ad-Hoc Peer-to-Peer Networks. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 85(3), 105-121. doi:10.1016/s1571-0661(04)80687-xMendes, L. D. P., Rodrigues, J. J. P. C., Lloret, J., & Sendra, S. (2014). Cross-Layer Dynamic Admission Control for Cloud-Based Multimedia Sensor Networks. IEEE Systems Journal, 8(1), 235-246. doi:10.1109/jsyst.2013.2260653Dutta, R., & B, A. (2014). Protection of data in unsecured public cloud environment with open, vulnerable networks using threshold-based secret sharing. Network Protocols and Algorithms, 6(1), 58. doi:10.5296/npa.v6i1.486