An efficient disjunctive query enabled ranked searchable encryption scheme

Cloud computing motivates data owners to economically outsource large amounts of data to the cloud. To preserve the privacy and confidentiality of the documents, the documents need to be encrypted prior to being outsourced to the cloud. In this paper, we propose a lightweight construction that facilitates ranked disjunctive keyword (multi-keyword) searchable encryption based on probabilistic trapdoors. The security analysis yieldsthat the probabilistic trapdoors help resist distinguishability attacks. Through the computational complexity analysis we realize that our scheme outperforms similar existing schemes. We explore the use of searchable encryption in the telecom domain by implementing and deploying our proof of concept prototypeonto the British Telecommunication's Public Cloud offering and testing it over a real corpus of audio transcriptions. The extensive experimentation thereafter validates our claim that our scheme is lightweight

Robust moving horizon state estimation for uncertain linear systems using linear matrix inequalities

This paper investigates the problem of state estimation for linear-time-invariant (LTI) discrete-time systems subject to structured feedback uncertainty and bounded disturbances. The proposed Robust Moving Horizon Estimation (RMHE) scheme computes at each sample time tight bounds on the uncertain states by solving a linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimization problem based on the available noisy input and output data. In comparison with conventional approaches that use offline calculation for the estimation, the suggested scheme achieves an acceptable level of performance with reduced conservativeness, while the online computational time is maintained relatively low. The effectiveness of the proposed estimation method is assessed via a numerical example

Lepton Polarization Asymmetry in B l l(bar) decays in R-parity violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We study the implication of R-parity violating Rp Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) model in lepton polarization asymmetry ALP in B l l(bar) decays . The analysis show that the ALP is significant in a certain phenomenological parametric region of Yukawa couplings. We have also placed indirect bounds on Lambda' lambda couplings as obtained from B t t(bar).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures Changes of notation in Eq(8-11,17-19),Eq.20 adde

A New Secure and Lightweight Searchable Encryption Scheme over Encrypted Cloud Data

Searchable Encryption is an emerging cryptographic technique that enables searching capabilities over the encrypted data on the cloud. In this paper, a novel searchable encryption scheme for the client-server architecture has been presented. The scheme exploits the properties of modular inverse to generate a probabilistic trapdoor which facilitates the searching over the secure inverted index table. We propose indistinguishability that is achieved by using the property of a probabilistic trapdoor. We design and implement a proof of concept prototype and test our scheme onto a real dataset of files. We analyze the performance of our scheme against our claim of the scheme being light weight. The security analysis yields that our scheme assures higher level of security as compared to other existing schemes

The effect of plant growth regulators on callus initiation in wormwood (Artemisia annua L.)

Studies were carried out in the Biotechnology laboratory of Plant Science Department of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria to study the effect of some plant growth regulators on the in vitro initiation of callus using the leaves of Chiyong variety of Artemisia annua. The explants were sterilized and incubated on Murashige and Skoog basal media augmented with varying concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 3.0 μm/l of Giberellic acid (GA3), Benzyle amino purine (BAP), Naphthyle acetic acid (NAA),2,4-Dichlrophynoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), Indole butyricacid (IBA) and Kinetin (Kin). The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with 2 replicates. Low BAP concentration of 0.5 μm/l and a high concentration of NAA of 3.0 μm/l as well as equal concentration of BAP of 1.0 μm/l and IBA of 1.0 μm/l had the least days (7days) to regeneration. For regeneration percent, equal low concentrations of BAP of 0.5 μm/l and NAA of 0.5 μm/l had the highest performance of 94%. However, no significant difference was observed between treatments with respect to vigor. Equal low concentrations of BAP (0.5 μm/l) and (0.5 μm/l) NAA and BAP(1.0 μm/l) combined with IBA(1.5 μm/l) had the highest height. Results of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicated significant difference among the treatments compared with the control (P<0.05). Therefore, combined BAP and NAA treatment is an efficient protocol for callus initiation and proliferation. A combination of GA3 and BAP is suitable for shoot initiation from callus using cultures of A. annua.Keywords: Artemisia annua, in vitro, Nodal cuttings, growth regulator

Privacy-preserving COVID-19 Contact Tracing Blockchain

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has caused widespread panic and global initiatives are geared towards treatment and limiting its spread. With technological advancements, several mechanisms and mobile applications have been developed that attempt to trace the physical contact made by a person with someone who has been tested COVID-19 positive. While designing these apps, user's privacy has been an afterthought and has resulted in mass violations of privacy of the public and the patients. A total of 32 countries have designed apps and rely on them as a strategy to flatten the pandemic curve. Along with lack of privacy, these methodologies are centralized, where they are fully controlled by the government and the healthcare providers. Owing to these and many other concerns, people are hesitant in the adoption of these technologies. This paper presents a detailed analysis of user tracking apps belonging to 32 countries, thus demonstrating that they collect personal data and are a gross violation of user privacy. This paper presents a novel architecture for the efficient, effective and privacy-preserving contact tracing of COVID-19 patients using blockchain. The proposed architecture preserves the privacy of individuals and their contact history by encrypting all the data specific to an individual using a privacy-preserving Homomorphic encryption scheme and storing it on a permissioned blockchain network. The contacts made with a COVID-19 positive patient are identified by performing search queries directly over the Homomorphic encrypted data stored in the blocks. Therefore, only those contacts that are suspected to be COVID-19 positive may be decrypted by the healthcare professional or government for further contact tracing/diagnosis and COVID-19 testing; thereby leading to enhanced privacy

Properties of resin impregnated oil palm wood (Elaeis Guineensis Jack)

Oil palm wood (OPW) was treated with medium-molecular weight PF resin (mmw-PF) through a modified impregnation-compression method. The method consists of four steps, namely, drying, impregnation, heating, and hot pressing densification. The objective of the study was to optimize the impregnation variables. The overall density of the OPW increased, whereas the density gradient between the two OPW structural elements (namely, parenchyma tissues and vascular bundles) decreased. The weight percent gain (WPG) significantly increased even with a very short impregnation period (i.e. 1 hour). Young`s Modulus of the compression parallel to the grain increased by 15 times (from 170 to 2600 MPa) and the shear strength increased by 7 times (from 1.9 to 13 MPa). The strength of the samples was increased exponentially against density increment. The treatment also made the two OPW structural elements to be strongly bonded that helped in enhancing the durability and machining characteristics of the material

On the security of consumer wearable devices in the Internet of Things

Miniaturization of computer hardware and the demand for network capable devices has resulted in the emergence of a new class of technology called wearable computing. Wearable devices have many purposes like lifestyle support, health monitoring, fitness monitoring, entertainment, industrial uses, and gaming. Wearable devices are hurriedly being marketed in an attempt to capture an emerging market. Owing to this, some devices do not adequately address the need for security. To enable virtualization and connectivity wearable devices sense and transmit data, therefore it is essential that the device, its data and the user are protected. In this paper the use of novel Integrated Circuit Metric (ICMetric) technology for the provision of security in wearable devices has been suggested. ICMetric technology uses the features of a device to generate an identification which is then used for the provision of cryptographic services. This paper explores how a device ICMetric can be generated by using the accelerometer and gyroscope sensor. Since wearable devices often operate in a group setting the work also focuses on generating a group identification which is then used to deliver services like authentication, confidentiality, secure admission and symmetric key generation. Experiment and simulation results prove that the scheme offers high levels of security without compromising on resource demands

Magnetic properties of quantum Heisenberg ferromagnets with long-range interactions

Quantum Heisenberg ferromagnets with long-range interactions decayin as $1/r^p$ in one and two dimensions are investigated by means of the Green's function method. It is shown that there exists a finite-temperature phase transition in the region $d<p<2 d$ for the $d$-dimensional case and that no transitions at any finite temperature exist for $p\ge 2 d$; the critical temperature is also estimated. We study the magnetic properties of this model. We calculate the critical exponents' dependence on $p$; these exponents also satisfy a scaling relation. Some of the results were also found using the modified spin-wave theory and are in remarkable agreement with each other.Comment: 13 pages(LaTeX REVTeX), 2 figures not included (postscript files available on request), submitted to Phys.Rev.