Secure Equality Test Technique Using Identity-Based Signcryption for Telemedicine Systems

For telemedicine, wireless body area network (WBAN) offers enormous benefits where a patient can be remotely monitored without compromising the mobility of remote treatments. With the advent of high capacity and reliable wireless networks, WBANs are used in several remote monitoring systems, limiting the COVID-19 spread. The sensitivity of telemedicine applications mandates confidentiality and privacy requirements. In this article, we propose a secure WBAN-19 telemedicine system to overcome the pervasiveness of contagious deceases utilizing a novel aggregate identity-based signcryption scheme with an equality test feature. We demonstrate a security analysis regarding indistinguishable adaptive chosen-ciphertext attack (IND-CCA2), one-way security against adaptive chosen-ciphertext attack (OW-CCA2), and unforgeability against adaptive chosen-message attack (EUF-CMA) under the random oracle model. The security analysis of the scheme is followed by complexity evaluations where the computation cost and communication overhead are measured. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed model is efficient and applicable in telemedicine systems with high-performance capacities

Etiology and antibiotic resistance patterns of community-acquired urinary tract infections in J N M C Hospital Aligarh, India

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) remain the common infections diagnosed in outpatients as well as hospitalized patients. Current knowledge on antimicrobial susceptibility pattern is essential for appropriate therapy. Extended-Spectrum beta-Lactamase (ESBL) producing bacteria may not be detected by routine disk diffusion susceptibility test, leading to inappropriate use of antibiotics and treatment failure. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of bacterial strains isolated from patients with community acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs) at Aligarh hospital in India as well as identification of ESBL producers in the population of different uropathogens. METHODS: Urinary isolates from symptomatic UTI cases attending to the JN Medical College and hospital at Aligarh were identified by conventional methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method. Isolates resistant to third generation cephalosporin were tested for ESBL production by double disk synergy test method. RESULTS: Of the 920 tested sample 100 samples showed growth of pathogens among which the most prevalent were E. coli (61%) followed by Klebsiella spp (22%). The majority (66.66%) of the isolates were from female while the remaining were from male. Among the gram-negative enteric bacilli high prevalence of resistance was observed against ampicillin and co-trimoxazole. Most of the isolates were resistant to 4 or more number of antibiotics. Forty two percent of isolates were detected to produce ESBL among which 34.42 % were E. coli isolates. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that E. coli was the predominant bacterial pathogen of community acquired UTIs in Aligarh, India. It also demonstrated an increasing resistance to Co-trimoxazole and production of extended spectrum β-lactamase among UTI pathogens in the community. This study is useful for clinician in order to improve the empiric treatment

Etiology and antibiotic resistance patterns of community-acquired urinary tract infections in J N M C Hospital Aligarh, India

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) remain the common infections diagnosed in outpatients as well as hospitalized patients. Current knowledge on antimicrobial susceptibility pattern is essential for appropriate therapy. Extended-Spectrum beta-Lactamase (ESBL) producing bacteria may not be detected by routine disk diffusion susceptibility test, leading to inappropriate use of antibiotics and treatment failure. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of bacterial strains isolated from patients with community acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs) at Aligarh hospital in India as well as identification of ESBL producers in the population of different uropathogens. METHODS: Urinary isolates from symptomatic UTI cases attending to the JN Medical College and hospital at Aligarh were identified by conventional methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method. Isolates resistant to third generation cephalosporin were tested for ESBL production by double disk synergy test method. RESULTS: Of the 920 tested sample 100 samples showed growth of pathogens among which the most prevalent were E. coli (61%) followed by Klebsiella spp (22%). The majority (66.66%) of the isolates were from female while the remaining were from male. Among the gram-negative enteric bacilli high prevalence of resistance was observed against ampicillin and co-trimoxazole. Most of the isolates were resistant to 4 or more number of antibiotics. Forty two percent of isolates were detected to produce ESBL among which 34.42 % were E. coli isolates. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that E. coli was the predominant bacterial pathogen of community acquired UTIs in Aligarh, India. It also demonstrated an increasing resistance to Co-trimoxazole and production of extended spectrum β-lactamase among UTI pathogens in the community. This study is useful for clinician in order to improve the empiric treatment

Investigating the evolution of apoptosis in malaria parasites: the importance of ecology

Apoptosis is a precisely regulated process of cell death which occurs widely in multicellular organisms and is essential for normal development and immune defences. In recent years, interest has grown in the occurrence of apoptosis in unicellular organisms. In particular, as apoptosis has been reported in a wide range of species, including protozoan malaria parasites and trypanosomes, it may provide a novel target for intervention. However, it is important to understand when and why parasites employ an apoptosis strategy before the likely long-and short-term success of such an intervention can be evaluated. The occurrence of apoptosis in unicellular parasites provides a challenge for evolutionary theory to explain as organisms are expected to have evolved to maximise their own proliferation, not death. One possible explanation is that protozoan parasites undergo apoptosis in order to gain a group benefit from controlling their density as this prevents premature vector mortality. However, experimental manipulations to examine the ultimate causes behind apoptosis in parasites are lacking. In this review, we focus on malaria parasites to outline how an evolutionary framework can help make predictions about the ecological circumstances under which apoptosis could evolve. We then highlight the ecological considerations that should be taken into account when designing evolutionary experiments involving markers of cell death, and we call for collaboration between researchers in different fields to identify and develop appropriate markers in reference to parasite ecology and to resolve debates on terminology.Host-parasite interactio

Ethnic Diversity in Boxing: To what Extent is a Boxing Club in West Yorkshire Affecting Young People’s Views on Ethnic Diversity?

Boxing gyms in West Yorkshire have become more diverse in recent years since boxers of different ethnic backgrounds have joined the clubs (England Boxing, 2018).This research examined the views of boxers on ethnic diversity and how these were influenced by the environment in their boxing gym. This small-scale qualitative research used narrative inquiry to examine the views of five boxers of different ethnicities using a focus group and semi-structured interviews. The boxers were questioned on their motivation, discipline and views on ethnic diversity before and after they were members of the same club. The data shows that they did not consider ethnic diversity an important aspect in their lives before they joined the club. However, having been part of the boxing culture for many years, their thinking and actions changed. This research suggests boxers are initially motivated by their personal goals which lead them to learn and practice self-discipline because it is seen as the way to reach their goals. Their intense focus on goal seeking has relaxed their views on ethnic diversity so that differences in ethnicities were overlooked due to the common and personal goals of the boxers

Dynamics of Ideological Biases of Social Media Users

Humanity for centuries has perfected skills of interpersonal interactions and evolved patterns that enable people to detect lies and deceiving behavior of others in face-to-face settings. Unprecedented growth of people's access to mobile phones and social media raises an important question: How does this new technology influence people's interactions and support the use of traditional patterns? In this paper, we answer this question for homophily driven patterns in social media. In our previous studies, we found that, on a university campus, changes in student opinions were driven by the desire to hold popular opinions. Here, we demonstrate that the evolution of online platform-wide opinion groups is driven by the same desire. We focus on two social media: Twitter and Parler, on which we tracked the political biases of their users. On Parler, an initially stable group of right-biased users evolved into a permanent right-leaning echo chamber dominating weaker, transient groups of members with opposing political biases. In contrast, on Twitter, the initial presence of two large opposing bias groups led to the evolution of a bimodal bias distribution, with a high degree of polarization. We capture the movement of users from the initial to final bias groups during the tracking period. We also show that user choices are influenced by side-effects of homophily. The users entering the platform attempt to find a sufficiently large group whose members hold political bias within the range sufficiently close to the new user's bias. If successful, they stabilize their bias and become a permanent member of the group. Otherwise, they leave the platform. We believe that the dynamics of users uncovered in this paper create a foundation for technical solutions supporting social groups on social media and socially aware networks.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to IEEE Communications Magazin

A cross sectional study on prevalence and factors influencing anxiety and depression among patients with type II diabetes mellitus

Background: Numerous study findings documented higher risk of depression and anxiety that diabetic population. Anxiety and depression in turn are proven to have strong negative influence on glycemic control, complications and quality of life in diabetic patients. Major portion of evidence linking DM, depression and anxiety comes from developed countries, and there is scarcity of research in this regard in developing and low-income countries. Aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of depression and anxiety and factors associated with them in type II diabetes mellitus patients.Methods: The study was a descriptive cross sectional study, conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital. The study included 135 sequentially recruited type II diabetic patients. Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) were used to assess the severity of depression/anxiety.Results: A total of 135 participants were included in the study. More than half (59.3%) of the study subjects have reported history of perceived stress. The proportions of subjects, reporting either anxiety or depression were 64.4%. Depression alone was present in 60.7% of the subjects and anxiety alone was present in 44.4% of the subjects. New onset of diabetes mellitus (Odds ratio 3.51, 95% CI 1.3 to 5.38), presence of diabetic neuropathy (Odds ratio 1.64, 95% CI 1.28 to 3.57), presence of diabetic retinopathy (Odds ratio 2.70, 95% CI 1.63 to 6.78) and history of perceived stress (Odds ratio 40.32, 95% CI 10.95 to 148.32), were associated with anxiety and depression.Conclusions: Prevalence of depression and anxiety was very high in diabetic population; hence evaluation and management should be part of routine care. Special focus should be given to patients with new onset diabetes, suffering from neuropathy or nephropathy and patients with history of stressors.

Improving TCP behaviour to non-invasively share spectrum with safety messages in VANET

There is a broad range of technologies available for wireless communications for moving vehicles, such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), 3G, Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC)/ Wireless Access for Vehicular Environment (WAVE) and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA). These technologies are needed to support delay-sensitive safety related applications such as collision avoidance and emergency breaking. Among them, the IEEE802.11p standard (aka DSRC/WAVE), a Wi-Fi based medium RF range technology, is considered to be one of the best suited draft architectures for time-sensitive safety applications. In addition to safety applications, however, services of non-safety nature like electronic toll tax collection, infotainment and traffic control are also becoming important these days. To support delay-insensitive infotainment applications, the DSRC protocol suite also provides facilities to use Internet Protocols. The DSRC architecture actually consists of WAVE Short Messaging Protocol (WSMP) specifically formulated for realtime safety applications as well as the conventional transport layer protocols TCP/UDP for non-safety purposes. But the layer four protocol TCP was originally designed for reliable data delivery only over wired networks, and so the performance quality was not guaranteed for the wireless medium, especially in the highly unstable network topology engendered by fast moving vehicles. The vehicular wireless medium is inherently unreliable because of intermittent disconnections caused by moving vehicles, and in addition, it suffers from multi-path and fading phenomena (and a host of others) that greatly degrade the network performance. One of the TCP problems in the context of vehicular wireless network is that it interprets transmission errors as symptomatic of an incipient congestion situation and as a result, reduces the throughput deliberately by frequently invoking slow-start congestion control algorithms. Despite the availability of many congestion control mechanisms to address this problem, the conventional TCP continues to suffer from poor performance when deployed in the Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) environment. Moreover, the way non-safety applications, when pressed into service, will treat the existing delay-sensitive safety messaging applications and the way these two types of applications interact between them are not (well) understood, and therefore, in order for them to coexist, the implication and repercussion need to be examined closely. This is especially important as IEEE 802.11p standards are not designed keeping in view the issues TCP raises in relation to safety messages. This dissertation addresses the issues arising out of this situation and in particular confronts the congestion challenges thrown up in the context of heterogenous communication in VANET environment by proposing an innovative solution with two optimized congestion control algorithms. Extensive simulation studies conducted by the author shows that both these algorithms have improved TCP performance in terms of metrics like Packet Delivery Fraction (PDF), Packet Loss and End-to-End Delay (E2ED), and at the same time they encourage the non-safety TCP application to behave unobtrusively and cooperatively to a large extent with DSRC’s safety applications. The first algorithm, called vScalable-TCP – a modification of the existing TCPScalable variant – introduces a reliable transport protocol suitable for DSRC. In the proposed approach, whenever packets are discarded excessively due to congestion, the slow-start mechanism is purposely suppressed temporarily to avoid further congestion and packet loss. The crucial idea here is how to adjust and regulate the behaviour of vScalable-TCP in a way that the existing safety message flows are least disturbed. The simulation results confirm that the new vScalable-TCP provides better performance for real-time safety applications than TCP-Reno and other TCP variants considered in this thesis in terms of standard performance metrics. The second algorithm, named vLP-TCP – a modification of the existing TCP-LP variant – is designed to test and demonstrate that the strategy developed for vScalable-TCP is also compatible with another congestion control mechanism and achieves the same purpose. This expectation is borne out well by the simulation results. The same slow-start congestion management strategy has been employed but with only a few amendments. This modified algorithm also improves substantially the performance of basic safety management applications. The present work thus clearly confirms that both vScalable-TCP and vLP-TCP algorithms – the prefix ‘v’ to the names standing for ‘vehicular’ – outperform the existing unadorned TCP-Scalable and TCP-LP algorithms, in terms of standard performance metrics, while at the same time behaving in a friendly manner, by way of sharing bandwidth non-intrusively with DSRC safety applications. This paves the way for the smooth and harmonious coexistence of these two broad, clearly incompatible or complementary categories of applications – viz. time-sensitive safety applications and delay-tolerant infotainment applications – by narrowing down their apparent impedance or behavioural mismatch, when they are coerced to go hand in hand in a DSRC environment