A novel optimized neutrosophic <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-means using genetic algorithm for skin lesion detection in dermoscopy images

This paper implemented a new skin lesion detection method based on the genetic algorithm (GA) for optimizing the neutrosophic set (NS) operation to reduce the indeterminacy on the dermoscopy images. Then, k-means clustering is applied to segment the skin lesion regions. Therefore, the proposed method is called optimized neutrosophic k-means (ONKM). On the training images set, an initial value of \(\alpha \) in the \(\alpha \)-mean operation of the NS is used with the GA to determine the optimized \(\alpha \) value. The Jaccard index is used as the fitness function during the optimization process. The GA found the optimal \(\alpha \) in the \(\alpha \)-mean operation as \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}} =0.0014\) in the NS, which achieved the best performance using five fold cross-validation. Afterward, the dermoscopy images are transformed into the neutrosophic domain via three memberships, namely true, indeterminate, and false, using \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}}\). The proposed ONKM method is carried out to segment the dermoscopy images. Different random subsets of 50 images from the ISIC 2016 challenge dataset are used from the training dataset during the fivefold cross-validation to train the proposed system and determine \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}}\). Several evaluation metrics, namely the Dice coefficient, specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy, are measured for performance evaluation of the test images using the proposed ONKM method with \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}} =0.0014\) compared to the k-means, and the \(\gamma \)–k-means methods. The results depicted the dominance of the ONKM method with \(99.29\pm 1.61\%\) average accuracy compared with k-means and \(\gamma \)–k-means methods.     

Minimizing the Two-Round Even–Mansour Cipher

The r-round (iterated) Even–Mansour cipher (also known as key-alternating cipher) defines a block cipher from r fixed public n-bit permutations \(P_1,\ldots ,P_r\) as follows: Given a sequence of n-bit round keys \(k_0,\ldots ,k_r\), an n-bit plaintext x is encrypted by xoring round key \(k_0\), applying permutation \(P_1\), xoring round key \(k_1\), etc. The (strong) pseudorandomness of this construction in the random permutation model (i.e., when the permutations \(P_1,\ldots ,P_r\) are public random permutation oracles that the adversary can query in a black-box way) was studied in a number of recent papers, culminating with the work of Chen and Steinberger (EUROCRYPT 2014), who proved that the r-round Even–Mansour cipher is indistinguishable from a truly random permutation up to \(\mathcal {O}(2^{\frac{rn}{r+1}})\) queries of any adaptive adversary (which is an optimal security bound since it matches a simple distinguishing attack). All results in this entire line of work share the common restriction that they only hold under the assumption that the round keys \(k_0,\ldots ,k_r\) and the permutations \(P_1,\ldots ,P_r\) are independent. In particular, for two rounds, the current state of knowledge is that the block cipher \(E(x)=k_2\oplus P_2(k_1\oplus P_1(k_0\oplus x))\) is provably secure up to \(\mathcal {O}(2^{2n/3})\) queries of the adversary, when \(k_0\), \(k_1\), and \(k_2\) are three independent n-bit keys, and \(P_1\) and \(P_2\) are two independent random n-bit permutations. In this paper, we ask whether one can obtain a similar bound for the two-round Even–Mansour cipher from just one n-bit key and one n-bit permutation. Our answer is positive: When the three n-bit round keys \(k_0\), \(k_1\), and \(k_2\) are adequately derived from an n-bit master key k, and the same permutation P is used in place of \(P_1\) and \(P_2\), we prove a qualitatively similar \(\widetilde{\mathcal {O}}(2^{2n/3})\) security bound (in the random permutation model). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first “beyond the birthday bound” security result for AES-like ciphers that does not assume independent round keys.     

Highly efficient nonlinear regression for big data with lexicographical splitting

This paper considers the problem of online piecewise linear regression for big data applications. We introduce an algorithm, which sequentially achieves the performance of the best piecewise linear (affine) model with optimal partition of the space of the regressor vectors in an individual sequence manner. To this end, our algorithm constructs a class of \(2^D\) sequential piecewise linear models over a set of partitions of the regressor space and efficiently combines them in the mixture-of-experts setting. We show that the algorithm is highly efficient with computational complexity of only \(O(mD^2)\), where m is the dimension of the regressor vectors. This efficient computational complexity is achieved by efficiently representing all of the \(2^D\) models using a “lexicographical splitting graph.” We analyze the performance of our algorithm without any statistical assumptions, i.e., our results are guaranteed to hold. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm over the well-known data sets in the machine learning literature with computational complexity fraction of the state of the art.     

Secret-Sharing Schemes for Very Dense Graphs

A secret-sharing scheme realizes a graph if every two vertices connected by an edge can reconstruct the secret while every independent set in the graph does not get any information on the secret. Similar to secret-sharing schemes for general access structures, there are gaps between the known lower bounds and upper bounds on the share size for graphs. Motivated by the question of what makes a graph “hard” for secret-sharing schemes (that is, they require large shares), we study very dense graphs, that is, graphs whose complement contains few edges. We show that if a graph with \(n\) vertices contains \(\left( {\begin{array}{c}n\\ 2\end{array}}\right) -n^{1+\beta }\) edges for some constant \(0 \le \beta <1\), then there is a scheme realizing the graph with total share size of \(\tilde{O}(n^{5/4+3\beta /4})\). This should be compared to \(O(n^2/\log (n))\), the best upper bound known for the total share size in general graphs. Thus, if a graph is “hard,” then the graph and its complement should have many edges. We generalize these results to nearly complete \(k\)-homogeneous access structures for a constant \(k\). To complement our results, we prove lower bounds on the total share size for secret-sharing schemes realizing very dense graphs, e.g., for linear secret-sharing schemes, we prove a lower bound of \(\Omega (n^{1+\beta /2})\) for a graph with \(\left( {\begin{array}{c}n\\ 2\end{array}}\right) -n^{1+\beta }\) edges.     

Comparison of $$(1+\alpha )$$ Fractional-Order Transfer Functions to Approximate Lowpass Butterworth Magnitude Responses

Three fractional-order transfer functions are analyzed for differences in realizing (\(1+\alpha \)) order lowpass filters approximating a traditional Butterworth magnitude response. These transfer functions are realized by replacing traditional capacitors with fractional-order capacitors (\(Z=1/s^{\alpha }C\) where \(0\le \alpha \le 1\)) in biquadratic filter topologies. This analysis examines the differences in least squares error, stability, \(-\)3 dB frequency, higher-order implementations, and parameter sensitivity to determine the most suitable (\(1+\alpha \)) order transfer function for the approximated Butterworth magnitude responses. Each fractional-order transfer function for \((1+\alpha )=1.5\) is realized using a Tow–Thomas biquad a verified using SPICE simulations.     

Electrical Transport Mechanisms and Photoconduction in Undoped Crystalline Flash-Evaporated Lead Iodide Thin Films

The flash-evaporation technique was utilized to fabricate undoped 1.35-μm and 1.2-μm thick lead iodide films at substrate temperatures \( T_{\rm{s}} = 150 \)°C and 200°C, respectively. The films were deposited onto a coplanar comb-like copper (Cu-) electrode pattern, previously coated on glass substrates to form lateral metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM-) structures. The as-measured constant-temperature direct-current (dc)-voltage (\( I\left( {V;T} \right) - V \)) curves of the obtained lateral coplanar Cu-PbI₂-Cu samples (film plus electrode) displayed remarkable ohmic behavior at all temperatures (\( T = 18 - 90\,^\circ {\hbox{C}} \)). Their dc electrical resistance \( R_{\rm{dc}} (T \)) revealed a single thermally-activated conduction mechanism over the temperature range with activation energy \( E_{\rm{act}} \approx 0.90 - 0.98 \,{\hbox{eV}} \), slightly less than half of room-temperature bandgap energy \( E_{\rm{g}} \) (\( \approx \,2.3\, {\hbox{eV}} \)) of undoped 2H-polytype PbI₂ single crystals. The undoped flash-evaporated \( {\hbox{PbI}}_{\rm{x}} \) thin films were homogeneous and almost stoichiometric (\( x \approx 1.87 \)), in contrast to findings on lead iodide films prepared by other methods, and were highly crystalline hexagonal 2H-polytypic structure with c-axis perpendicular to the surface of substrates maintained at \( T_{\rm{s}} { \gtrsim }150^\circ {\hbox{C}} \). Photoconductivity measurements made on these lateral Cu-PbI₂-Cu-structures under on–off visible-light illumination reveal a feeble photoresponse for long wavelengths (\( \lambda > 570\,{\hbox{nm}} \)), but a strong response to blue light of photon energy \( E_{\rm{ph}} \) \( \approx \,2.73 \, {\hbox{eV}} \) (\( > E_{\rm{g}} \)), due to photogenerated electron–hole (e–h) pairs via direct band-to-band electronic transitions. The constant-temperature/dc voltage current–time \( I\left( {T,V} \right) - t \) curves of the studied lateral PbI₂ MSM-structures at low ambient temperatures (\( T < 50^\circ {\hbox{C}} \)), after cutting off the blue-light illumination, exhibit two trapping mechanisms with different relaxation times. These strongly depend on \( V \) and \( T \), with thermally generated charge carriers in the PbI₂ mask photogenerated (e–h) pairs at higher temperatures.     

Intermittent Fault Diagnosability of Hyper Petersen Network

The problem of permanent fault diagnosis has been discussed widely, and the diagnosability of many well-known networks have been explored. Faults of a multiprocessor system generally include permanent and intermittent, with intermittent faults regarded as the most challenging to diagnose. In this paper, we investigate the intermittent fault diagnosability of hyper Petersen networks. First, we derive that an \(n\)-dimensional hyper Petersen network \(HP_{n}\) with fault-free edges is \((n - 1)_{i}\)-diagnosable under the PMC model. Then, we investigate the intermittent fault diagnosability of \(HP_{n}\) with faulty edges under the PMC model. Finally, we prove that an \(n\)-dimensional hyper Petersen network \(HP_{n}\) is \((n - 2)_{i}\)-diagnosable under the MM* model.     

Automata Evaluation and Text Search Protocols with Simulation-Based Security

This paper presents efficient protocols for securely computing the following two problems: (1) The fundamental problem of pattern matching. This problem is defined in the two-party setting, where party \(P_1\) holds a pattern and party \(P_2\) holds a text. The goal of \(P_1\) is to learn where the pattern appears in the text, without revealing it to \(P_2\) or learning anything else about \(P_2\)’s text. This problem has been widely studied for decades due to its broad applicability. We present several protocols for several notions of security. We further generalize one of our solutions to solve additional pattern matching-related problems of interest. (2) Our construction from above, in the malicious case, is based on a novel protocol for secure oblivious automata evaluation which is of independent interest. In this problem, party \(P_1\) holds an automaton and party \(P_2\) holds an input string, and they need to decide whether the automaton accepts the input, without learning anything else. Our protocol obtains full security in the face of malicious adversaries.     

5.18–7.42 GHz LC-VCO in subthreshold regime with low power low phase noise and immunity to PVT variations in 130 nm CMOS technology

In this paper, we propose an LC-VCO using automatic amplitude control and filtering technique to eliminate frequency noise around 2\(\omega _0\). The LC-VCO is designed with TSMC 130 nm CMOS RF technology, and biased in subthreshold regime in order to get more negative transconductance to overcome the losses in the LC-Tank and achieve less power consumption. The designed VCO operates at 5.17 GHz and can be tuned from 5.17 to 7.398 GHz, which is corresponding to 35.5% tuning range. The VCO consumes through it 495–440.5 \(\upmu\)W from 400 mV dc supply. This VCO achieves a phase noise of \(-\,122.3\) and \(-\,111.7\) dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 5.17 and 7.39 GHz carrier, respectively. The calculated Figure-of-merits (FoM) at 1 MHz offset from 5.17 and 7.39 GHz is \(-\,199.7\) and \(-\,192.4\) dBc/Hz, respectively. And it is under \(-\,190.5\) dBc/Hz through all the tuning range. The FoM\(_T\) at 1 MHz offset from 5.17 GHz carrier is \(-\,210.6\) dBc/Hz. The proposed design was simulated for three different temperatures (\(-\,55\), 27, \(125\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\)), and three supply voltages (0.45, 0.4, 0.35 V), it was concluded that the designed LC-VCO presents high immunity to PVT variations, and can be used for multi-standard wireless LAN communication protocols 802.11a/b/g.     

Design and Performance Study of Dynamic Fractors in Any of the Four Quadrants

A fractor is a simple fractional-order system. Its transfer function is \(1/Fs^{\alpha }\); the coefficient, F, is called the fractance, and \(\alpha \) is called the exponent of the fractor. This paper presents how a fractor can be realized, using RC ladder circuit, meeting the predefined specifications on both F and \(\alpha \). Besides, commonly reported fractors have \(\alpha \) between 0 and 1. So, their constant phase angles (CPA) are always restricted between \(0^{\circ }\) and \(-90^{\circ }\). This work has employed GIC topology to realize fractors from any of the four quadrants, which means fractors with \(\alpha \) between \(-\)2 and +2. Hence, one can achieve any desired CPA between \(+180^{\circ }\) and \(-180^{\circ }\). The paper also exhibits how these GIC parameters can be used to tune the fractance of emulated fractors in real time, thus realizing dynamic fractors. In this work, a number of fractors are developed as per proposed technique, their impedance characteristics are studied, and fractance values are tuned experimentally.     

On the equivalence of multivariate polynomial matrices

The equivalence of system is an important concept in multidimensional (\(n\)D) system, which is closely related to equivalence of multivariate polynomial matrices. This paper mainly investigates the equivalence of some \(n\)D polynomial matrices, several new results and conditions on the reduction by equivalence of a given \(n\)D polynomial matrix to its Smith form are obtained.     

Study on the Effect of Mn,Zn, and Sb on Undercooling Behavior of Sn-Ag-Cu Alloys Using Differential Thermal Analysis

Differential thermal analysis (DTA) has been conducted on directionally solidified near-eutectic Sn-3.0 wt.%Ag-0.5 wt.%Cu (SAC), SAC \(+\) 0.2 wt.%Sb, SAC \(+\) 0.2 wt.%Mn, and SAC \(+\) 0.2 wt.%Zn. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy was used to study element partitioning behavior and estimate DTA sample compositions. Mn and Zn additives reduced the undercooling of SAC from 20.4\(^\circ \hbox {C}\) to \(4.9^\circ \hbox {C}\) and \(2^\circ \hbox {C}\), respectively. Measurements were performed at cooling rate of \(10^\circ \hbox {C}\) per minute. After introducing 200 ppm \(\hbox {O}_2\) into the DTA, this undercooling reduction ceased for SAC \(+\) Mn but persisted for SAC \(+\) Zn.     

A Dichotomy for Local Small-Bias Generators

We consider pseudorandom generators in which each output bit depends on a constant number of input bits. Such generators have appealingly simple structure: They can be described by a sparse input–output dependency graph \(G\) and a small predicate \(P\) that is applied at each output. Following the works of Cryan and Miltersen (MFCS’01) and by Mossel et al (STOC’03), we ask: which graphs and predicates yield “small-bias” generators (that fool linear distinguishers)? We identify an explicit class of degenerate predicates and prove the following. For most graphs, all non-degenerate predicates yield small-bias generators, \(f:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}^m\), with output length \(m = n^{1 + \epsilon }\) for some constant \(\epsilon > 0\). Conversely, we show that for most graphs, degenerate predicates are not secure against linear distinguishers, even when the output length is linear \(m=n+\Omega (n)\). Taken together, these results expose a dichotomy: Every predicate is either very hard or very easy, in the sense that it either yields a small-bias generator for almost all graphs or fails to do so for almost all graphs. As a secondary contribution, we attempt to support the view that small-bias is a good measure of pseudorandomness for local functions with large stretch. We do so by demonstrating that resilience to linear distinguishers implies resilience to a larger class of attacks.     

Error performance of optically preamplified hybrid BPSK-PPM systems with transmitter and receiver imperfections

In this paper, we investigate the impact of the transmitter finite extinction ratio and the receiver carrier recovery phase offset on the error performance of two optically preamplified hybrid M-ary pulse position modulation (PPM) systems with coherent detection. The first system, referred to as PB-mPPM, combines polarization division multiplexing (PDM) with binary phase-shift keying and M-ary PPM, and the other system, referred to as PQ-mPPM, combines PDM with quadrature phase-shift keying and M-ary PPM. We provide new expressions for the probability of bit error for PB-mPPM and PQ-mPPM under finite extinction ratios and phase offset. The extinction ratio study indicates that the coherent systems PB-mPPM and PQ-mPPM outperform the direct-detection ones. It also shows that at \(P_b=10^{-9}\) PB-mPPM has a slight advantage over PQ-mPPM. For example, for a symbol size \(M=16\) and extinction ratio \(r=30\) dB, PB-mPPM requires 0.6 dB less SNR per bit than PQ-mPPM to achieve \(P_b=10^{-9}\). This investigation demonstrates that PB-mPPM is less complex and less sensitive to the variations of the offset angle \(\theta \) than PQ-mPPM. For instance, for \(M=16\), \(r=30\) dB, and \(\theta =10^{\circ }\) PB-mPPM requires 1.6 dB less than PQ-mPPM to achieve \(P_b=10^{-9}\). However, PB-mPPM enhanced robustness to phase offset comes at the expense of a reduced bandwidth efficiency when compared to PQ-mPPM. For example, for \(M=2\) its bandwidth efficiency is 60 % that of PQ-mPPM and \(\approx 86\,\%\) for \(M=1024\). For these reasons, PB-mPPM can be considered a reasonable design trade-off for M-ary PPM systems.     

Synchronization of Coupled Neutral-Type Delay Partial Differential Systems

This paper considers the asymptotical synchronization and \(H_\infty \) synchronization for coupled neutral-type delay partial differential systems (NDPDSs). First, we construct a coupled synchronization error dynamic. Using the method of nonsingular matrix transformation, we decouple these coupled synchronization error dynamical systems. Then we study the asymptotical stability of the decoupled synchronization error dynamical systems through the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional method, which implies the asymptotical synchronization of the coupled NDPDSs. Furthermore, when external disturbances enter the coupled NDPDSs, the \(H_\infty \) synchronization problem is also considered. The equivalence between the \(H_\infty \) stability of decoupled synchronization error dynamical systems and the \(H_\infty \) synchronization of coupled NDPDSs is proved by rigorous mathematical analysis. Then the criterion for the \(H_\infty \) stabilization is presented, which guarantees the \(H_\infty \) synchronization of the coupled NDPDSs. Moreover, as a remarkable difference between the ordinary differential systems and partial differential systems, the effect of the spatial domain on the synchronization is revealed through the obtained criteria. At last, numerical examples are given to illustrate the correctness of our results.     

Sparse least mean p-power algorithms for channel estimation in the presence of impulsive noise

The least mean p-power (LMP) is one of the most popular adaptive filtering algorithms. With a proper p value, the LMP can outperform the traditional least mean square \((p=2)\), especially under the impulsive noise environments. In sparse channel estimation, the unknown channel may have a sparse impulsive (or frequency) response. In this paper, our goal is to develop new LMP algorithms that can adapt to the underlying sparsity and achieve better performance in impulsive noise environments. Particularly, the correntropy induced metric (CIM) as an excellent approximator of the \(l_0\)-norm can be used as a sparsity penalty term. The proposed sparsity-aware LMP algorithms include the \(l_1\)-norm, reweighted \(l_1\)-norm and CIM penalized LMP algorithms, which are denoted as ZALMP, RZALMP and CIMLMP respectively. The mean and mean square convergence of these algorithms are analysed. Simulation results show that the proposed new algorithms perform well in sparse channel estimation under impulsive noise environments. In particular, the CIMLMP with suitable kernel width will outperform other algorithms significantly due to the superiority of the CIM approximator for the \(l_0\)-norm.     

$$H_\infty $$ Model Reduction for the Distillation Column Linear System

In the paper, the problem of model reduction is considered for the distillation column linear system. For a given stable distillation column linear system, the objective is to find the construction of a reduced-order model, which approximates the original system well in the robust \(H_\infty \) performance. Some sufficient conditions to characterize the \(H_\infty \) norm bound error performance are proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Following the proposed projection approach, the \(H_\infty \) model reduction problem is solved, which casts the model reduction subject to LMIs constraints. Finally, a practical example of the distillation column linear system is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

The Security of Tandem-DM in the Ideal Cipher Model

We prove that Tandem-DM, one of the two “classical” schemes for turning an n-bit blockcipher of 2n-bit key into a double-block-length hash function, has birthday-type collision resistance in the ideal cipher model. For \(n=128\), an adversary must make at least \(2^{120.87}\) blockcipher queries to achieve chance 0.5 of finding a collision. A collision resistance analysis for Tandem-DM achieving a similar birthday-type bound was already proposed by Fleischmann, Gorski and Lucks at FSE 2009. As we detail, however, the latter analysis is wrong, thus leaving the collision resistance of Tandem-DM as an open problem until now. Our analysis exhibits a novel feature in that we introduce a trick never used before in ideal cipher proofs. We also give an improved bound on the preimage security of Tandem-DM. For \(n=128\), we show that an adversary must make at least \(2^{245.99}\) blockcipher queries to achieve chance 0.5 of inverting a randomly chosen point in the range. Asymptotically, Tandem-DM is proved to be preimage resistant up to \(2^{2n}/n\) blockcipher queries. This bound improves upon the previous best bound of \({{\varOmega }}(2^n)\) queries and is optimal (ignoring log factors) since Tandem-DM has range of size \(2^{2n}\).     

Bandgap Tuning of Sm and Co Co-doped BFO Nanoparticles for Photovoltaic Application

Multiferroic \(BiFeO_3\) (BFO) with bandgap energy (\(E_g\)) between 2.2 eV to 2.7 eV is a potential candidate for photovoltaic (PV) application. However, the efficiency of BFO based PV solar cells is reportedly still too low (less than 2%) to be used for practical applications. Reducing \(E_g\) of BFO without compromising the ferroelectric properties is a big challenge to the scientific community to obtain power conversion efficiencies beyond the maximum value of 26.6% reported in general for silicon based hetero-structure PV solar cells. In this context, samarium (Sm) and cobalt (Co) co-doped BFO (\(Bi_{0.9}Sm_{0.1}Fe_{0.9}Co_{0.1}O_3\)) nanoparticles were synthesized using the sol-gel method. X-ray diffractometry was employed to determine the structure of synthesized nanoparticles. A well-defined crystalline structure of co-doped BFO nanoparticles was confirmed. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was carried out to study grain morphology of synthesized nanoparticles. Sm and Co dopants have been shown to reduce grain size significantly from 68.3 nm to 18.5 nm. An UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer was used to measure diffuse reflectance to calculate \(E_g\). A significant reduction of \(E_g\) down to 1.50 eV of co-doped BFO compared to undoped and or single doped counterpart has been manifested.     

Mixed RF/FSO bidirectional system achieving spectral efficiency

The performance of two-way relay (TWR)-assisted mixed radio-frequency/free-space optical (RF/FSO) system is evaluated in this letter. The proposed system employs decode-and-forward relaying phenomena where the relay is basically an interfacing node between two source nodes \(S_1\) and \(S_2\), where \(S_1\) supports RF signal, while \(S_2\) supports FSO signal. The TWR-assisted system helps in achieving spectral efficiency by managing bidirectional communication in three time slots, thus maximizing the achievable rate of the network. The RF link is subjected to generalized \(\eta -\mu \) distribution, and the optical channel is affected by path loss, pointing errors and gamma–gamma (gg) distributed atmospheric turbulence. The novel expressions for the probability density function and cumulative distribution function of the equivalent end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are derived. Capitalizing on these derived statistics of end-to-end SNR, the expressions of outage probability and the bit-error rate for different binary modulations and M-ary modulations are provided.