A lightweight and secure multilayer authentication scheme for wireless body area networks in healthcare system

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) have lately been combined with different healthcare equipment to monitor patients' health status and communicate information with their healthcare practitioners. Since healthcare data often contain personal and sensitive information, it is important that healthcare systems have a secure way for users to log in and access resources and services. The lack of security and presence of anonymous communication in WBANs can cause their operational failure. There are other systems in this area, but they are vulnerable to offline identity guessing attacks, impersonation attacks in sensor nodes, and spoofing attacks in hub node. Therefore, this study provides a secure approach that overcomes these issues while maintaining comparable efficiency in wireless sensor nodes and mobile phones. To conduct the proof of security, the proposed scheme uses the Scyther tool for formal analysis and the Canetti–Krawczyk (CK) model for informal analysis. Furthermore, the suggested technique outperforms the existing symmetric and asymmetric encryption-based schemes

SMART CITY SECURITY: FACE-BASED IMAGE RETRIEVAL MODEL USING GRAY LEVEL CO-OCCURRENCE MATRIX

Nowadays, a lot of images and documents are saved on data sets and cloud servers such as certificates, personal images, and passports. These images and documents are utilized in several applications to serve residents living in smart cities. Image similarity is considered as one of the applications of smart cities. The major challenges faced in the field of image management are searching and retrieving images. This is because searching based on image content requires a long time. In this paper, the researchers present a secure scheme to retrieve images in smart cities to identify wanted criminals by using the Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix. The proposed scheme extracts only five features of the query image which are contrast, homogeneity, entropy, energy, and dissimilarity. This work consists of six phases which are registration, authentication, face detection, features extraction, image similarity, and image retrieval. The current study runs on a database of 810 images which was borrowed from face94 to measure the performance of image retrieval. The results of the experiment showed that the average precision is 97.6 and average recall is 6.3., Results of the current study have been relatively inspiring compared with the results of two previous studies

Interferon-Alpha 2-a and Its Dual Effect in Treating Two Diseases (Hepatitis C and Polycythemia Vera)

Hepatitis C and polycythemia vera (PV) co-existence is not rare; it has been reported in the literature. Treatment with interferon (IFN) has been used to treat both conditions; however, the use of IFN in concomitant hepatitis C infection with PV and its outcome are rarely described in the literature. Here, we report a 56-years-old male patient with hepatitis C virus infection and PV, who was treated with IFN for his chronic hepatitis C, which resulted in significant improvement of HB as well as normalization of his bone marrow and eradication of the clone (Jak2 V617F)

Student opinion survey on delivery of ECE431: Computer programming undergraduate course

No Abstract

COVID-19 in a pregnant patient with beta-thalassemia major: A case report

Further studies are needed on this unique population to better manage them and increase their chances of normal pregnancy and fewer complications and more favorable outcomes

Agarwood oil quality classifier using machine learning

Agarwood oil is known as one of the most expensive and precious oils being traded. It is widely used in traditional ceremonies and religious prayers. Its quality plays an important role on the market price that it can be traded. This paper proposes on a proper classification method of the agarwood oil quality using machine learning model k-nearest neighbour (k-NN). The chemical compounds of the agarwood oil from high and low quality are used to train and build the k-NN classifier model. Correlation reduce the dimension of the data before it is being fed into the model. The results show a very high accuracy (100%) model trained and can be used to classify the agarwood oil quality accurately. Keywords: agarwood oil; k-nearest neighbours; quality; machine learning

A new monoclonal antibody detects downregulation of protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type γ in chronic myeloid leukemia patients

Background: Protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor gamma (PTPRG) is a ubiquitously expressed member of the protein tyrosine phosphatase family known to act as a tumor suppressor gene in many different neoplasms with mechanisms of inactivation including mutations and methylation of CpG islands in the promoter region. Although a critical role in human hematopoiesis and an oncosuppressor role in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) have been reported, only one polyclonal antibody (named chPTPRG) has been described as capable of recognizing the native antigen of this phosphatase by flow cytometry. Protein biomarkers of CML have not yet found applications in the clinic, and in this study, we have analyzed a group of newly diagnosed CML patients before and after treatment. The aim of this work was to characterize and exploit a newly developed murine monoclonal antibody specific for the PTPRG extracellular domain (named TPγ B9-2) to better define PTPRG protein downregulation in CML patients. Methods: TPγ B9-2 specifically recognizes PTPRG (both human and murine) by flow cytometry, western blotting, immunoprecipitation, and immunohistochemistry. Results: Co-localization experiments performed with both anti-PTPRG antibodies identified the presence of isoforms and confirmed protein downregulation at diagnosis in the Philadelphia-positive myeloid lineage (including CD34+/CD38bright/dim cells). After effective tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment, its expression recovered in tandem with the return of Philadelphia-negative hematopoiesis. Of note, PTPRG mRNA levels remain unchanged in tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) non-responder patients, confirming that downregulation selectively occurs in primary CML cells. Conclusions: The availability of this unique antibody permits its evaluation for clinical application including the support for diagnosis and follow-up of these disorders. Evaluation of PTPRG as a potential therapeutic target is also facilitated by the availability of a specific reagent capable to specifically detect its target in various experimental conditions

B40 online business platform: e-commerce and life cycle model considerations

A new online business platform is needed in Malaysia. The proposed system aims to provide B40 household income group with the necessary knowledge for increasing readiness in online business, and equip them with access to available financing, e-commerce, and logistic solutions. Prior to project commencement, a review is performed on e-commerce and development life cycle models. The adopted approach includes issues such as client engagement, development team, duration of project, requirement of prototype, and scale of deployment. In this case, a modified Rapid Application Development model is suitable for monitoring project progress and delivery

GALLSTONES IN PATIENTS WITH INHERITED HEMOLYTIC DISEASES

The purpose is to provide an overview on the incidence of gallstone disease in patients with various types of inherited (chronic) hemolytic diseases at risk of cholelithiasis/choledocholithiasis with particular emphasis on its pathogenesis, genetic, risk factors and management. A detailed electronic literature search to determine the source of materials for this review article was done. The reported incidences of gallstones and choledocholithiasis vary according to the different types of inherited hemolytic diseases and the ethnicity of the studied populations. To date, no review article summarises the incidences of cholelithiasis in patients with various inherited haemolytic diseases was published. Regular ultrasound examination for the presence of gallstones recommended in patients with inherited haemolytic anaemias, particularly those with additional risk factors recommended. Further studies for evaluating the reasons for the higher incidence of cholelithiasis in thalassemia major and sickle cell anemia compared to hereditary spherocytosis; the effect of co inheritance of alpha thalassaemia on decreasing bilirubin level in patients with sickle cell disease and beta thalassaemia; the effect of the co inheritance of UGT1A1 and ABCG8 gene mutation on the incidence of gallstones in other blood diseases such as Hb-H disease, autoimmune haemolytic anaemias, congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia, hereditary elliptocytosis, Southeast Asian Ovalocytosis, glucose-6-phosphate and pyruvate kinase deficiency are recommended. Evaluation of the potential role of the solubility of the mutant proteins and haemoglobin subunit in the red blood cells as an additional mechanism for the development of gallstones in patients with inherited haemolytic anaemias recommended

TOXICOLOGICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF GOLD NANORODS IN NORMAL RATS

Objective: assessment of acute, subchronic and chronic toxicity of pegylated gold nanorods (PEG-gold NRs) in Wistar rats of both sex in three routes of administration {intravenous (IV), intramuscular (IM) and subcutaneous (SC)}.Methods: in the acute toxicity study; PEG-gold NRs were injected once by three different routes, blood and tissue samples were collected after 14 d. In the subchronic and chronic studies; PEG-gold NRs were injected via three different routes, at 0.225, 0.45 and 0.9 mg/kg, once daily for 5 consecutive days, followed by a 23-day recovery period, for three and six months in the subchronic and chronic toxicity studies, respectively. Hematology, urinalysis, biochemical and histopathological examinations were conducted at the end of each study.Results: acute toxicity showed a significant decrease in serum triglycerides and cholesterol levels after single IV, IM and SC injection of PEG-gold NRs, while serum creatinine was significantly increased after IV and IM injection. Subchronic results revealed a significant decrease in serum triglycerides and cholesterol levels. The chronic study showed a significant decrease in serum triglycerides, sodium levels, total leukocytes count and significant increase in serum creatinine after IV injection. IM injection resulted in significant decrease in serum alkaline phosphatase, triglycerides, cholesterol, sodium levels and total leukocytes count. SC injection resulted in significant decrease in serum triglycerides, glucose, red blood cell count with increased creatinine and hematocrit.Conclusion: PEG-gold NRs at the three examined doses is apparently safe since no serious signs of toxicity were detected. IM and SC routes of injection were irritating, so we recommend the IV route.Â