Privacy preserving secure expansive aggregation with malicious node identification in linear wireless sensor networks

The Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) used for the monitoring applications like pipelines carrying oil, water, and gas; perimeter surveillance; border monitoring; and subway tunnel monitoring form linearWSNs. Here, the infrastructure being monitored inherently forms linearity (straight line through the placement of sensor nodes). Therefore, suchWSNs are called linear WSNs. These applications are security critical because the data being communicated can be used for malicious purposes. The contemporary research of WSNs data security cannot fit in directly to linear WSN as only by capturing few nodes, the adversary can disrupt the entire service of linear WSN. Therefore, we propose a data aggregation scheme that takes care of privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of data. In addition, the scheme is resilient against node capture attack and collusion attacks. There are several schemes detecting the malicious nodes. However, the proposed scheme also provides an identification of malicious nodes with lesser key storage requirements. Moreover, we provide an analysis of communication cost regarding the number of messages being communicated. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed data aggregation scheme is the first lightweight scheme that achieves privacy and verification of data, resistance against node capture and collusion attacks, and malicious node identification in linear WSNs.     

Effects of manufacturing process variables on in vitro dissolution characteristics of extended-release tablets formulated with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three process variables: distribution of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) within the tablet matrix, amount of water for granulation, and tablet hardness on drug release from the hydrophilic matrix tablets. Tablets were made both by direct compression as well as wet granulation method. Three formulations were made by wet granulation, all three having the exact same composition but differing in intragranular:intergranular HPMC distribution in the matrix. Further, each formulation was made using two different amounts of water for granulation. All tablets were then compressed at two hardness levels. Dissolution studies were performed on all tablets using USP dissolution apparatus I (basket). The dissolution parameters obtained were statistically analyzed using a multilevel factorial-design approach to study the influence of the various process variables on drug release from the tablets. Results indicated that a change in the manufacturing process could yield significantly dissimilar dissolution profiles for the same formulation, especially at low-hardness level. Overgranulation could lead to tablets showing hardness-dependent drug-release characteristics. Studies showed that intergranular addition of a partial amount of HPMC (i.e., HPMC addition outside of granules) provided a significant advantage in making the formulation more robust over intragranular addition (i.e., that in which the entire amount of HPMC was added to the granules). Dissolution profiles obtained for these tablets were relatively less dependent on tablet hardness irrespective of the amount of water added during granulation.     

LONG-RANGE PREDICTIVE CONTROL WITH STEADY STATE ERROR WEIGHTING

The long-range predictive control strategy is extended to include a terminal matching condition so that the final control law minimizes the squares of prediction errors over a small future prediction horizon and at steady state. The weighting on the terminal condition is a better alternative than a large prediction horizon, which requires a heavy computational load. It also leads to the formulation of an approximate long range predictive controller with knowledge of only a few initial step response coefficients and the steady state gain. Evaluations of steady state error weighting show that the weighting provides similar effects to ordinary control weighting but in addition has the stabilizing effects of a large predictive control horizon. An adaptive version of this control strategy has been successfully applied to the control of mean arterial blood pressure. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SINGULAR p-VERSION FINITE ELEMENTS FOR STRESS INTENSITY FACTOR COMPUTATIONS

The finite element analysis of linear elastic fracture mechanics problems is complicated by the presence of the singular and finite non-singular stress distributions in the crack tip region. The availability of a constant stress term in addition to the singular term in the standard h-version singular finite elements is insufficient to model the finite nonsingular stress zone. A p-version singular finite element capable of modelling the higher-order non-singular stress terms in addition to the singular term and the constant term is presented. The formulation for the displacement substitution technique for computing the stress intensity factors using singular p-version triangular finite elements is developed. Unlike the standard h-version formulation, the stress intensity factors computed using the p-version displacement substitution technique do not depend on the specific arrangement and length of the quarter point elements, and require simple mesh designs as well as fewer number of degrees of freedom. Numerical studies comparing the convergence of the stress intensity factors computed by the p-version method against other available alternatives such as the h-version method and the contour integral method are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present developments. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Study of Electromagnetic Properties of Fabricated NiFe2O4/Polyurethane Nanocomposites

Nickel ferrite loaded (NiFe₂O₄) segmented polyurethane (SPU) nanocomposites prepared by melt mixing method using microcompounder at temperature 185 °C in recirculation mode to ensure proper dispersion and distribution of nanoparticles at optimized residency time of 5 min. Three different weight percentages of nanocomposites (3, 5, and 10 wt %) was prepared and studied the electromagnetic property of nanocomposites obtained from complex permittivity and permeability. The effect of nanofiller (NiFe₂O₄) has been studied to assess their thermal properties using thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermomechanical analysis. The nanocomposites (NiFe₂O₄/SPU) have further been studied using FE-SEM, and the micrographs show embedded NiFe₂O₄ filler uniformly dispersed in SPU matrix without agglomeration (size 20–40 nm). It is also evident that further loading of nanofiller resulted in saturation effect yielding no applicable change in thermal behavior and revealed lesser melting enthalpy due to the coalescence of the nanofillers. X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometer also support the formation of the nanocomposite. The electric and magnetic properties of NiFe₂O₄ incorporated nanocomposite (NiFe₂O₄/SPU) may have potential application in microwave absorption. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 137, 48645.     

Lector with Footed-Diode Inverter: A Technique for Leakage Reduction in Domino Circuits

Leakage power consumption is a major technical problem faced in nanometer or deep submicron CMOS circuit technology. A new circuit technique based on “lector stacking” is proposed in this paper for reducing the subthreshold and gate oxide leakage currents in the idle and non-idle modes of operation for domino circuits. In this technique a p-type and an n-type leakage control transistor (LCT) are introduced between the pull-up and pull-down network, and the gate of one is controlled by the source of the other. For any combination of inputs, one of the LCTs will operate near its cut-off region and will increase the resistance between supply voltage and ground, resulting in reduced leakage current. Lector stacking retains the logic state during the idle mode as in the conventional footerless domino logic. Furthermore, the leakage current is suppressed at the output inverter circuit by adding a diode-footed transistor below the n-type transistor of the inverter, offering a more resistive path between supply voltage and ground.The proposed circuit technique for AND2, OR2, OR4, and OR8 circuits reduces the active power consumption by 13.66 % to 44.45 % and by 12 % to 33 % at the low and high die temperatures, respectively, compared to the standard footerless domino logic circuits. During idle mode for the same logic gates, 1.64 % to 79.39 % and 1.2 % to 35.19 % reduction of leakage current is observed with low and high inputs at 25 °C and 110 °C respectively. Similarly, during non-idle mode 0.94 % to 99.3 % and 1.57 % to 98.58 % is observed with low and high inputs at 25 to 110 °C, respectively, when compared to standard footerless domino logic circuits.     

Survival of Lactic Acid Bacteria and Their Lactases under Acidic Conditions

Effects of sonication, survival, and β-galactosidase activity of four lactic cultures were investigated in pH 1.5-3.5 range. Lactobacillus delbruekii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus exhibited the highest β-galactosidase activity in skim milk and broth systems, respectively. The β-galactosidases from L. delbruekii subsp. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, and L. acidophilus showed optimum activity in the neutral pH range and 55°C. Viable count of all four cultures decreased most rapidly at pH 1.5, but L. acidophilus and L. delbruekii subsp. bulgaricus survived better than the other organisms. The decrease of enzyme activity of unsonicated cultures with pH was slight, especially at pH 3.5. However, acidification of sonicated cultures to pH 3.5 or lower resulted in rapid and permanent loss of enzyme activity.     

Escherichia coli genosensor based on polyaniline

Avidin-modified polyaniline (PANI) electrochemically deposited onto a Pt disk electrode has been utilized for direct detection of Escherichia coli by immobilizing a 5'-biotin-labeled E. coli probe (BdE) using a differential pulse voltammetric technique in the presence of methylene blue as a DNA hybridization indicator. Depending on the target sample and the sonication time, this BdE-avidin-PANI bioelectrode can be utilized to electrochemically detect a complementary target probe (0.009 ng/microL), E. coli genomic DNA (0.01 ng/microL) and 11 E. coli cells/mL in 60 s to 14 min (hybridization time) without using PCR and can be used 5-7 times at temperatures of 30-45 degrees C.