QoS-Based and Secure Multipath Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

With the growing demand for quality of service (QoS) aware routing protocols in wireless networks, QoS-based routing has emerged as an interesting research topic. A QoS guarantee in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is difficult and more challenging due to the fact that the available resources of sensors and the various applications running over these networks have different constraints in their nature and requirements. Furthermore, due to the increased use of sensor nodes in a variety of application fields, WSNs need to handle heterogeneous traffic with diverse priorities to achieve the required QoS. In this thesis, we investigate the problem of providing multi-QoS in routing protocols for WSNs. In particular, we investigate several aspects related to the application requirements and the network states and resources. We present multi-objective QoS aware routing protocol for WSNs that uses the geographic routing mechanism combined with the QoS requirements to meet diverse application requirements by considering the changing conditions of the network. The protocol formulates the application requirements with the links available resources and conditions to design heuristic neighbor discovery algorithms. Also, with the unlimited resource at the sink node, the process of selecting the routing path/paths is assigned to the sink. Paths selection algorithms are designed with various goals in order to extend network lifetime, enhance the reliability of data transmission, decrease end-to-end delay, achieve load balancing and provide fault tolerance. We also develop a cross-layer routing protocol that combines routing at network layer and the time scheduling at the MAC layer with respect to delay and reliability in an energy efficient way. A node-disjoint multipath routing is used and a QoS-aware priority scheduling considering MAC layer is proposed to ensure that real time and non-real time traffic achieve their desired QoS while alleviating congestion in the network. Additionally, we propose new mechanism for secure and reliable data transmission in multipath routing for WSNs. Different levels of security requirements are defined and depending on these requirements, a selective encryption scheme is introduced to encrypt selected number of coded fragments in order to enhance security and thereby reduce the time required for encryption. Node-disjoint multipath routing combined with source coding is used in order to enhance both security and reliability of data transmission. Also, we develop an allocation strategy that allocates fragments on paths to enhance both the security and probability of successful data delivery. Analysis and extensive simulation are conducted to study the performance of all the above proposed protocols

A comparison of some forecasting models to forecast the number of old people in Iraqi retirement homes

Statistical methods of forecasting have applied with the intention of constructing a model to predict the number of the old aged people in retirement homes in Iraq. They were based on the monthly data of old aged people in Baghdad and the governorates except for the Kurdistan region from 2016 to 2019. Using Box-Jenkins methodology, the stationarity of the series was examined. The appropriate model order was determined, the parameters were estimated, the significance was tested, adequacy of the model was checked, and then the best model of prediction was used. The best model for forecasting according to criteria of (Normalized BIC, MAPE, RMSE) is ARIMA (0, 1, 2)

Differential marker expression by cultures rich in mesenchymal stem cells

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells have properties that make them amenable to therapeutic use. However, the acceptance of mesenchymal stem cells in clinical practice requires standardized techniques for their specific isolation. To date, there are no conclusive marker (s) for the exclusive isolation of mesenchymal stem cells. Our aim was to identify markers differentially expressed between mesenchymal stem cell and non-stem cell mesenchymal cell cultures. We compared and contrasted the phenotype of tissue cultures in which mesenchymal stem cells are rich and rare. By initially assessing mesenchymal stem cell differentiation, we established that bone marrow and breast adipose cultures are rich in mesenchymal stem cells while, in our hands, foreskin fibroblast and olfactory tissue cultures contain rare mesenchymal stem cells. In particular, olfactory tissue cells represent non-stem cell mesenchymal cells. Subsequently, the phenotype of the tissue cultures were thoroughly assessed using immuno-fluorescence, flow-cytometry, proteomics, antibody arrays and qPCR. Results: Our analysis revealed that all tissue cultures, regardless of differentiation potential, demonstrated remarkably similar phenotypes. Importantly, it was also observed that common mesenchymal stem cell markers, and fibroblast-associated markers, do not discriminate between mesenchymal stem cell and non-stem cell mesenchymal cell cultures. Examination and comparison of the phenotypes of mesenchymal stem cell and non-stem cell mesenchymal cell cultures revealed three differentially expressed markers – CD24, CD108 and CD40. Conclusion: We indicate the importance of establishing differential marker expression between mesenchymal stem cells and non-stem cell mesenchymal cells in order to determine stem cell specific markers