Key-dependent side-channel cube attack on CRAFT

CRAFT is a tweakable block cipher introduced in 2019 that aims to provide strong protection against differential fault analysis. In this paper, we show that CRAFT is vulnerable to side-channel cube attacks. We apply side-channel cube attacks to CRAFT with the Hamming weight leakage assumption. We found that the first half of the secret key can be recovered from the Hamming weight leakage after the first round. Next, using the recovered key bits, we continue our attack to recover the second half of the secret key. We show that the set of equations that are solvable varies depending on the value of the key bits. Our result shows that 99.90% of the key space can be fully recovered within a practical time.     

Optimization Models for Layout and Pipe Design for Storm Sewer Systems

Optimization models are developed for simultaneously determining the pipe layout and the pipe design for storm sewer systems. The pipe design process includes computation of commercial diameters, slopes, and crown elevations for the storm sewer pipes. The optimization models aim to minimize the total costs of the layout and the pipe design for most of system elements. The optimization models are formulated as a 0–1 Integer Nonlinear Programming problem and solved using the General Algebraic Modeling System without the use of heuristic models which were characteristic of all previous models for the simultaneous determine of the pipe layout and pipe design of sewer networks. The models are based upon two different optimization approaches: (1) considers one or more commercial diameters of pipe connecting two manholes and (2) considers only one commercial diameter in a pipe connecting two manholes. The commercial diameters, pipe slopes, crown elevations, and total costs of the storm sewer system were compared for the two approaches using an example that illustrates the savings in cost by allowing multiple pipe sizes. The two new optimization modeling approaches developed herein can simultaneously determine the minimum cost pipe design (commercial diameters, slopes, and crown elevations) and pipe layout of storm sewer systems and satisfy all design constraints.

     

Transference and retrieval of voice message over low signal strength in satellite communication

This paper presents a method of transferring voice using short messaging service in satellite communication system. The method is especially applicable in a situation where signal strength is low and voice call is not possible. In a tunnel, basement or environment with bad climate conditions, signal strength usually gets weak which make voice call difficult but SMS works in such situation. An application has been developed using J2ME language in order to test the proposed method. For experimentation, Thuraya SG-2520 satellite phone has been used.     

Gurum Seeds: A Potential Source of Edible Oil

Cucurbitaceae family seeds are mostly discarded as agro-industrial wastes. Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. colocynthoide) is an underutilized wild cucurbit plant, closely related to desert watermelon, which is grown abundantly in some African countries. Gurum seeds can play a significant role in health and nutrition due to their high oil content. This review describes the nutritional composition of gurum seeds and their oil profile. Gurum seeds are a good source of oil (27–35.5%), fiber (26–31%), crude protein (15–18%), and carbohydrates (14–17%). Gurum seeds oil is extracted by supercritical CO₂ (SFE), screw press, and solvent extraction techniques. The gurum seeds oil is composed of unsaturated fatty acids with a high proportion of linoleic acid (C18:2) and oleic acid (C18:1). Gurum seeds oil contains various bioactive compounds, such as tocopherols, phytosterols, and polyphenols. It is reported that solvent extraction gives a higher yield than the screw press and SFE, but the SFE is preferred due to safety issues. More studies are required for producing better quality gurum seeds oil by using novel extraction techniques that can increase oil yield.     

Enhanced halftone-based secure and improved visual cryptography scheme for colour/binary Images

Visual Cryptography (VC) is gaining attraction during the past few years to secure the visual information in the transmission network. It enables the visual data i.e. handwritten notes, photos, printed text, etc. to encrypt in such a way that their decryption can be done through the human visual framework. Hence, no computational assistance is required for the decryption of the secret images they can be seen through naked eye. In this paper, a novel enhanced halftoning-based VC scheme is proposed that works for both binary and color images. Fake share is generated by the combination of random black and white pixels. The proposed algorithm consists of 3 stages i.e., detection, encryption, and decryption. Halftoning, Encryption, (2, 2) visual cryptography and the novel idea of fake share, make it even more secure and improved. As a result, it facilitates the original restored image to the authentic user, however, the one who enters the wrong password gets the combination of fake share with any real share. Both colored and black images can be processed with minimal capacity using the proposed scheme.

     

Recent warming of Tonle Sap Lake,Cambodia: Implications for one of the world’s most productive inland fisheries

Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia is arguably the world's most productive freshwater ecosystems, as well as the dominant source of animal protein for the country. The rapid rise of hydropower schemes, deforestation, land development and climate change impacts in the Mekong River Basin, however, now represent serious concerns in regard to Tonle Sap Lake's ecological health and its role in future food security. To this end, the present study identifies significant recent warming of lake temperature and discusses how each of these anthropogenic perturbations in Tonle Sap's floodplain and the Mekong River Basin may be influencing this trend. The lake's dry season monthly average temperature increased by 0.03°C/year between 1988 and 2018, being largely in synchrony with warming trends of the local air temperature and upstream rivers. The impacts of deforestation and agriculture development in the lake's floodplain also exhibited a high correlation with an increased number of warm days observed in the lake, particularly in its southeast region (agriculture R² = .61; deforestation R² = .39). A total of 79 dams, resulting in 72 km³ of volumetric water capacity, were constructed between 2003 and 2018 in the Mekong River Basin. This dam development coincided with a decreasing trend in the number of dry season warm days per year in the lower Mekong River, while Tonle Sap Lake's number of dry season warm days continued to increase during this same period. The present study revealed that Tonle Sap Lake's temperature trends are highly influenced by temperature trends in the local climate, agriculture development and deforestation of the lake's watershed. Although there were no noticeable impacts observed from upstream dam development in the Mekong River Basin, local‐to‐regional agricultural and land management of the lake's watershed appear to be effective strategies for maintaining a stable thermal regime in the lake in order to facilitate maximum ecosystem health.     

Developing Faculty ICT Competencies Inside and Outside the Library

Despite all the financial resources that are directed to support and acquire learning technologies, the results have been generally disappointing. Faculty are eager to use technology but lack the technical skills, ability, and experience. Library staff includes a talent tool rich in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)/WEB 2.0 technical expertise and experience. In terms of content sourcing and procurement, library technical services and selection staff have broad knowledge of the marketplace for online information and content as well as experience in licensing access. They have a firm grasp of the transaction process, workflows, pricing, and licensing negotiations. Content development and sourcing inevitably involves access management, online storage, copyright, and licensing—things at which libraries are good. ICT deployment is changing teaching and learning on campuses, and the roles of those involved in teaching and learning are also changing. Whether formally through mandated library services, or informally through back channels, library staff are supporting faculty new technology use as well as faculty teaching materials content sourcing and procurement.     

Data-driven next-generation smart grid towards sustainable energy evolution: techniques and technology review

Meteorological changes urge engineering communities to look for sustainable and clean energy technologies to keep the environment safe by reducing CO2 emissions. The structure of these technologies relies on the deep integration of advanced data-driven techniques which can ensure efcient energy generation, transmission, and distribution. After conducting thorough research for more than a decade, the concept of the smart grid (SG) has emerged, and its practice around the world paves the ways for efcient use of reliable energy technology. However, many developing features evoke keen interest and their improvements can be regarded as the next-generation smart grid (NGSG). Also, to deal with the non-linearity and uncertainty, the emergence of data-driven NGSG technology can become a great initiative to reduce the diverse impact of non-linearity. This paper exhibits the conceptual framework of NGSG by enabling some intelligent technical features to ensure its reliable operation, including intelligent control, agent-based energy conversion, edge computing for energy management, internet of things (IoT) enabled inverter, agent-oriented demand side management, etc. Also, a study on the development of data-driven NGSG is discussed to facilitate the use of emerging data-driven techniques (DDTs) for the sustainable operation of the SG. The prospects of DDTs in the NGSG and their adaptation challenges in real-time are also explored in this paper from various points of view including engineering, technology, et al. Finally, the trends of DDTs towards securing sustainable and clean energy evolution from the NGSG technology in order to keep the environment safe is also studied, while some major future issues are highlighted. This paper can ofer extended support for engineers and researchers in the context of data-driven technology and the SG.     

The Double Edge Sword Based Distributed Executor Service

Scalability is one of the most important quality attribute of software-intensive systems, because it maintains an effective performance parallel to the large fluctuating and sometimes unpredictable workload. In order to achieve scalability, thread pool system (TPS) (which is also known as executor service) has been used extensively as a middleware service in software-intensive systems. TPS optimization is a challenging problem that determines the optimal size of thread pool dynamically on runtime. In case of distributed-TPS (DTPS), another issue is the load balancing b/w available set of TPSs running at backend servers. Existing DTPSs are overloaded either due to an inappropriate TPS optimization strategy at backend servers or improper load balancing scheme that cannot quickly recover an overload. Consequently, the performance of software-intensive system is suffered. Thus, in this paper, we propose a new DTPS that follows the collaborative round robin load balancing that has the effect of a double-edge sword. On the one hand, it effectively performs the load balancing (in case of overload situation) among available TPSs by a fast overload recovery procedure that decelerates the load on the overloaded TPSs up to their capacities and shifts the remaining load towards other gracefully running TPSs. And on the other hand, its robust load deceleration technique which is applied to an overloaded TPS sets an appropriate upper bound of thread pool size, because the pool size in each TPS is kept equal to the request rate on it, hence dynamically optimizes TPS. We evaluated the results of the proposed system against state of the art DTPSs by a client-server based simulator and found that our system outperformed by sustaining smaller response times.