Quality of Context in Context-Aware Systems

Context-aware Systems (CASs) are becoming increasingly popular and can be found in the areas of wearable computing, mobile computing, robotics, adaptive and intelligent user interfaces. Sensors are the corner stone of context capturing however, sensed context data are commonly prone to imperfection due to the technical limitations of sensors, their availability, dysfunction, and highly dynamic nature of environment. Consequently, sensed context data might be imprecise, erroneous, conflicting, or simply missing. To limit the impact of context imperfection on the behavior of a context-aware system, a notion of Quality of Context (QoC) is used to measure quality of any information that is used as context information. Adaptation is performed only if the context data used in the decision-making has an appropriate quality level. This paper reports an analytical review for state of the art quality of context in context-aware systems and points to future research directions

Online Software Copyright Protection Using Trust Platform Module and Database Watermarking

As the digital information can be copied and transmitted easily, new and novel methods for the investment safeguarding are highly important. Many software companies developed several ways to prevent their software from piracy but hackers are still working. Other companies have their own techniques, but they keep them for confidential. This paper utilizes the digital watermarking and the Trust Platform Module (TPM) to enhance software piracy protection and decrease the efforts costs to protect software copyrights. The paper conducts a new approach called Trust Platform Module and Database Watermarking (TPMDWM) which is developed to enhance the software copyright protection. The proposed approach combines the new technologies of Trust Platform Module with database watermarking, hash function, and advanced encryption standard to enhance software copyright protection and decrease the cost and loose of software revenues. As shown by results, TPMDWM can effectively prevent illegal copying, getting the software at installation or updating license. The results also show that TPMDWM approach does not affect the software code and control. In addition, TPMDWM decreases dongle cost and it can also be used for client identification

Colorectal cancer incidences in Lynch syndrome: a comparison of results from the prospective lynch syndrome database and the international mismatch repair consortium

Objective To compare colorectal cancer (CRC) incidences in carriers of pathogenic variants of the MMR genes in the PLSD and IMRC cohorts, of which only the former included mandatory colonoscopy surveillance for all participants. Methods CRC incidences were calculated in an intervention group comprising a cohort of confirmed carriers of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes (path_MMR) followed prospectively by the Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database (PLSD). All had colonoscopy surveillance, with polypectomy when polyps were identified. Comparison was made with a retrospective cohort reported by the International Mismatch Repair Consortium (IMRC). This comprised confirmed and inferred path_MMR carriers who were first- or second-degree relatives of Lynch syndrome probands. Results In the PLSD, 8,153 subjects had follow-up colonoscopy surveillance for a total of 67,604 years and 578 carriers had CRC diagnosed. Average cumulative incidences of CRC in path_MLH1 carriers at 70 years of age were 52% in males and 41% in females; for path_MSH2 50% and 39%; for path_MSH6 13% and 17% and for path_PMS2 11% and 8%. In contrast, in the IMRC cohort, corresponding cumulative incidences were 40% and 27%; 34% and 23%; 16% and 8% and 7% and 6%. Comparing just the European carriers in the two series gave similar findings. Numbers in the PLSD series did not allow comparisons of carriers from other continents separately. Cumulative incidences at 25 years were < 1% in all retrospective groups. Conclusions Prospectively observed CRC incidences (PLSD) in path_MLH1 and path_MSH2 carriers undergoing colonoscopy surveillance and polypectomy were higher than in the retrospective (IMRC) series, and were not reduced in path_MSH6 carriers. These findings were the opposite to those expected. CRC point incidence before 50 years of age was reduced in path_PMS2 carriers subjected to colonoscopy, but not significantly so

Colorectal cancer incidences in Lynch syndrome: a comparison of results from the prospective lynch syndrome database and the international mismatch repair consortium

Objective To compare colorectal cancer (CRC) incidences in carriers of pathogenic variants of the MMR genes in the PLSD and IMRC cohorts, of which only the former included mandatory colonoscopy surveillance for all participants. Methods CRC incidences were calculated in an intervention group comprising a cohort of confirmed carriers of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in mismatch repair genes (path_MMR) followed prospectively by the Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database (PLSD). All had colonoscopy surveillance, with polypectomy when polyps were identified. Comparison was made with a retrospective cohort reported by the International Mismatch Repair Consortium (IMRC). This comprised confirmed and inferred path_MMR carriers who were first- or second-degree relatives of Lynch syndrome probands. Results In the PLSD, 8,153 subjects had follow-up colonoscopy surveillance for a total of 67,604 years and 578 carriers had CRC diagnosed. Average cumulative incidences of CRC in path_MLH1 carriers at 70 years of age were 52% in males and 41% in females; for path_MSH2 50% and 39%; for path_MSH6 13% and 17% and for path_PMS2 11% and 8%. In contrast, in the IMRC cohort, corresponding cumulative incidences were 40% and 27%; 34% and 23%; 16% and 8% and 7% and 6%. Comparing just the European carriers in the two series gave similar findings. Numbers in the PLSD series did not allow comparisons of carriers from other continents separately. Cumulative incidences at 25 years were < 1% in all retrospective groups. Conclusions Prospectively observed CRC incidences (PLSD) in path_MLH1 and path_MSH2 carriers undergoing colonoscopy surveillance and polypectomy were higher than in the retrospective (IMRC) series, and were not reduced in path_MSH6 carriers. These findings were the opposite to those expected. CRC point incidence before 50 years of age was reduced in path_PMS2 carriers subjected to colonoscopy, but not significantly so

An analytical review for multipath routing in mobile ad hoc networks.

Multipath routing is a new extension to many traditional routing protocols in MANETs. Using multipath routing in MANETs can save energy, reduce frequent routing update, enhance data transmission rates, and increase wireless network bandwidth. This paper introduces an analytical review for multipath routing in MANETs covering its applications, classification, and design issues. A simulation-based analytical evaluation is presented in this review using NS2 for AODV and its multipath extensions namely, AOMDV and MRAODV against two traditional multipath routing protocols namely, DSR and TORA. Simulation results show that traditional multipath protocols outperform the single path version of AODV in terms of packet delivery fraction, routing packets overhead, and throughput while AODV has better performance in terms of average end-to-end delay. AODV extensions outperforms traditional protocols in terms of packet delivery fraction and average end-to-end delay

Opportunities and Obstacles to Deploy Internet of Things Services by Telecom Operators in Developing Countries (Case Study Telecom Operators in Yemen)

Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in the modern life. The authors see that offering IoT services by telecom operators better than others, especially in developing countries, where the concern of the community related to security issues is the most prominent obstacles. This paper addressed a future vision of IoT services in developing countries by telecom operators. This paper identified the possible opportunities, and obstacles for telecom operators to offer these services. This paper also presented a case study for telecom operators in Yemen. The case study has been taken from MTN and Yemen Mobile operators. The study's samples includes 73 engineers and SPSS has been used to analyse data. The results showed that (91.35%) from MTN's respondents and (81.14%) from Yemen Mobile's respondents agree that offering IoT services by the operator create new opportunities for profit. Also, results concerning to present services that can be provided are eleven services by MTN and seven services by Yemen Mobile operator

Enhancing the Distribution of Idle Cost for Scheduling Tasks without Setup Cost in Cloud Computing

Issues of task scheduling in the centre of cloud computing are becoming more important, and the cost is one of the most important parameters used for scheduling tasks. This study aims to investigate the problem of online task scheduling of the identified job of MapReduce on cloud computing infrastructure. It was proposed that the virtualized cloud computing setup comprised machines that host multiple identical virtual machines (VMs) that need to be activated earlier and run continuously, and booting a VM requires a constant setup time. A VM that remains running even though it is no longer used is considered an idle VM. Furthermore, this study aims to distribute the idle cost of the VMs rather than the cost of setting up them among tasks in a fair manner. This study also is an extension of previous studies which solved the problems that occurred when distributing the idle cost and setting up the cost of VMs among tasks. It classifies the tasks into three groups (long, mid, and short) and distributes the idle cost among the groups then among the tasks of the groups. The main contribution of this paper is the developing of a clairvoyant algorithm that addressed important factors such as the delay and the cost that occurred by waiting to setup VM (active VM). Also, when the VMs are run continually and some VMs become in idle state, the idle cost will be distributed among the current tasks in a fair manner. The results of this study, in comparison with previous studies, showed that the idle cost and the setup cost that was distributed among tasks were better than the idle cost and the setup cost distributed in those studies