<Emphasis Type="Italic">EIAS-CP:</Emphasis> new efficient identity-based authentication scheme with conditional privacy-preserving for VANETs

In VANETs, vehicles broadcast traffic-related messages periodically according to Dedicated Short Range Communication protocol. To ensure the reliability and integrity of messages, authentication schemes are involved in VANETs. As traffic-related messages are time-sensitive, they must be verified and processed timely, or it may cause inestimable harm to the traffic system. However, the OBUs and the RSUs are limited in computation ability and cannot afford vast messages’ verification. Recently, some identity-based authentication schemes using bilinear pairing have been proposed to improve the efficiency of message verification for VANETs. Nevertheless, the bilinear pairing is not suited for VANETs due to its complex operations. The design of an efficient and secure authentication scheme with low computation cost for VANETs still is a rewarding challenge. To settle this challenge, a new efficient identity-based authentication scheme is proposed in this paper. The proposed scheme ensures reliability and integrity of messages and provides conditional privacy-preserving. Compared with the most recent proposed authentication schemes for VANETs, the computation costs of the message signing and verification in the proposed scheme reduce by 88 and 93 % respectively, while security analysis demonstrates that our proposed scheme satisfies all security and privacy requirements for VANETs.     

Concerted cycloaddition of triazolinediones to substituted styrenes in the initial 1:1 adduct formation: Kinetic evidence

A kinetic study of the reaction between substituted styrenes and 4-substituted triazolinediones has been made in solvent benzene at 25°C. The influence of the substituents on the reaction rate has been analyzed. The Hammett correlation with σ gave ϱ values of −0.29 ± 0.02 and −0.61 ± 0.03 for the reaction of parasubstituted styrenes with Me-TAD and Ph-TAD, respectively. The structure-reactivity data support a mechanism for the initial 1:1 adduct formed involving a concerted cycloaddition step with simultaneous bond-making and bond-breaking processes.     

MatrixDCN: a high performance network architecture for large‐scale cloud data centers

With the widespread deployment of cloud services, data center networks are developing toward large‐scale, multi‐path networks. Conventional switching‐oriented data center network meets difficulties in terms of scalability and flexibility to support increasing bandwidth requirements for cloud services. To solve this problem, a simple and scalable architecture, MatrixDCN, is proposed in this paper. MatrixDCN is an approximate non‐blocking network, in which switches and servers are arranged in rows and columns that compose a matrix structure. A MatrixDCN network can accommodate up to hundreds of thousands of servers without bandwidth bottlenecks. Furthermore, the physical topology of a MatrixDCN network can be designed consistently with its logic topology, which helps to reduce the complexity of the management and maintenance of a data center. An efficient routing algorithm, named fault‐avoidance routing (FAR), is well designed for MatrixDCN to fully leverage the regularity in the topology. FAR builds two routing tables for a router. A BRT is built based on local topology, and a novel negative routing table (NRT) is increasingly built based on learned partial network failures, which really avoids the problem of network convergence and further shortens the calculating time of routing tables. FAR also greatly reduces the size of routing tables by introducing NRTs at routers. Theoretical analysis and simulations show that MatrixDCN has advantages on the scalability of topology, network throughput, and the performance of FAR. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Degradation Kinetics of Diltiazem

The kinetics of degradation of diltiazem hydrochloride in aqueous buffered solutions (pH 1-7) were studied. Diltiazem was found to undergo hydrolysis to desacetyldiltiazem. The decomposition of diltiazem followed pseudo-first order kinetics under the experimental conditions. The drug was relatively stable over the pH range 3-6 with optimum stability at pH 5. The extrapolated shelf-life at this pH was 42.0 days compared to 15.8 day at pH 2.     

Enhanced heavy oil recovery (SAGD), coinjection of steam and solvent,reduction of CEOR and CSOR

The effect of coinjection of hydrocarbon solvents (C₄, C₅, C₆, C₇, and C₈), with steam at low pressure, on heavy oil recovery is addressed. It is concluded that the coinjection of solvents reduced cumulative steam oil ratio and the lighter solvents performed better in reducing cumulative net energy oil ratio (CEOR, GJ/m³). The work illustrated that C₆ was the best-performing solvent with respect to oil recovery (EOR) at 20 wt%, CEOR with an optimum of 30 wt%. An explanation on the reason for the highest EOR at 20 wt% is given. The coinjection with CO₂ has also been addressed here with different schemes.     

Privacy-Preserving Data Communication Through Secure Multi-Party Computation in Healthcare Sensor Cloud

In recent years, wireless medical sensor networks meet the web to enable exciting healthcare applications that require data communication over the Internet. Often these applications suffer from data disclosure due to malicious users’ activities. To prevent such data disclosure in the healthcare systems, many public key cryptographic techniques have been used. However, most of them are too expensive to implement in the web-enabled wireless medical sensor networks. In 2013, Xun et al. introduced a lightweight encryption algorithm to protect communication between the sensor node and the data servers. Their scheme is based on the Sharemind framework. However, Sharemind framework has a limitation on the number of data storage servers (ie., three servers only). In addition, Xun et al’s scheme does not support privacy-preserving patient data analysis for distributed databases of different hospitals. In this paper, we introduce a new practical approach to prevent data disclosure from inside attack. Our new proposal is based on FairplayMP framework which enables programmers who are not experts in the theory of secure computation to implement such protocols. In addition, it support any number of n participants and is suitable for distributed environments. Moreover, in our new scheme, each sensor node needs only one secret key stored in advance to communicate with n different data servers, whereas three secret keys are embedded in advance into each sensor in order to communicate with three data servers in Xun et al’s scheme.     

Additive Behavioral Improvement after Combined Cell Therapy and Rehabilitation Despite Long-Term Microglia Presence in Stroke Rats

Microglia are involved in the post-stroke immunomodulation of brain plasticity, repair, and reorganization. Here, we evaluated whether adipose-tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) and/or rehabilitation improve behavioral recovery by modulating long-term perilesional inflammation and creating a recovery-permissive environment in a rat model of ischemic stroke. Methods: A two-way mixed lymphocyte reaction was used to assess the immunomodulatory capacity of ADMSCs in vitro. Two or 7 days after permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO), rats were intravenously administered ADMSCs or vehicle and housed in a standard or enriched environment (EE). Behavioral performance was assessed with a cylinder test, then we performed stereological and ImageJ/Fiji quantifications of ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1) cells and blood–brain barrier (BBB) leakage. Results: Human ADMSCs were immunosuppressive in vitro. The cylinder test showed partial spontaneous behavioral recovery of pMCAO rats, which was further improved by combined ADMSCs and housing in EE on days 21 and 42 (p < 0.05). We detected an ischemia-induced increase in numbers, staining intensity, and branch length of Iba1+ microglia/macrophages as well as BBB leakage in the perilesional cortex. However, these were not different among pMCAO groups. Conclusion: Combined cell therapy and rehabilitation additively improved behavioral outcome despite long-term perilesional microglia presence in stroke rats.     

InCloud: a cloud-based middleware for vehicular infotainment systems

Smart vehicles form pervasive environment to enhance user experience through multimedia enabled infotainment systems. In order to realize effective infotainment system for vehicles, we need to have context-aware applications that use latest (live) information for enhanced user experience. Such latest information is abundantly available on the Internet due to explosive growth of Web 3.0, which can be accessed through wireless communication infrastructures such as VANETs and LTE. In this paper we propose a cloud-based middleware framework, InCloud, for vehicular infotainment application development. The proposed framework follows service oriented architecture in which data filtering and fusion functionalities are delegated to the cloud. Data filtering and fusion reduce the data flow over wireless link. Furthermore, because most of the processing is done on the cloud, the client becomes lightweight and loosely coupled with Internet resources and underlying platforms in vehicles. We also propose a class-based fusion method for combining information from multiple resources on the Internet. The efficacy of the proposed framework is validated by developing three infotainment applications for vehicles: context-aware music, news, and an enhanced Direction (eDirection) application.