Equality test with an anonymous authorization in cloud computing

Wireless Networks - With the rapid popularity and wide adoption of cloud storage, providing privacy-preserving by protecting sensitive information becomes a matter of grave concern. The most...     

Survivability evaluation of SIGMA and mobile IP

Mobile IP has been developed by IETF to handle mobility of Internet hosts at the network layer. Mobile IP suffers from a number of drawbacks, including low survivability due to single-point failure of Home Agents. Recently, Seamless IP diversity based Generalized Mobility Architecture (SIGMA) was proposed to support low latency, low packet loss mobility of IP hosts. In this paper, we show that the location management scheme used in SIGMA enhances the survivability of the SIGMA-based mobile network. We develop an analytical model to evaluate and compare the survivability of SIGMA with that of Mobile IP. Numerical results show the improvement in system response time and service blocking probability of SIGMA over Mobile IP in the presence of hardware failures and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The research reported in this paper was funded by NASA Grants NAG3-2922 and NNX06AE44G     

Quantized based image watermarking in an independent domain

This paper presents a performance study for two well known quantized based watermarking schemes Scalar Costa Scheme (SCS), and Trellis Coded Quantization scheme (TCQ) in an independent domain. For our study, the independent domain is obtained by the combination of the cited schemes with Independent Component Analysis (ICA). The Independent Component Analysis is used while inserting and extracting the message. Thus a performance compromise improvement of the original SCS and TCQ schemes in terms of robustness, capacity, and security is shown. Then the obtained schemes performances are compared to the Spread Transform (ST) based scheme well known for its proven good robustness properties. Our results show that, using watermarking with side information in independent domain permits to improve the global SCS and TCQ schemes performances. For example, in the case of SCS, by studying the Bit Error Rate (BER) in function of the watermark to noise ratio (WNR), the robustness has been improved by 20 dB (1 decade) when WNR is equal to 0 dB. Moreover, the capacity study shows for the same WNR=0 dB, the amount of information to be transmitted without error for a given noise level of the proposed SCS combined with ICA scheme (SCS-ICA) is much higher than that of the existing schemes. Finally, the study of the probability density functions (PDF) of the original and marked signals has shown that the Cachin-security level of the TCQ in an independent domain scheme (TCQ-ICA) is the best one compared to the other known schemes.     

MC-CDMA with exponential power profile in Nakagami fading channel

A refined study of multi-carrier code division multiple access transmission over a Nakagami fading channel is proposed. The channel power is modeled with an exponential power profile rather than the uniform profile prevalent in other papers. An expression for the bit error rate (BER) is then derived. Numerical results show that MC-CDMA performances depend on the power dispersion of interferers around the desired user power.     

Performance Analysis of Prefix Delegation-Based Route Optimization Schemes: Effects of Increasing the Number of Nodes

Prefix delegation-based schemes have been proposed to solve the route optimization problem in NEtwork MObility where multiple IP-enabled hosts move together as a mobile network. Differences in the route optimization for hosts at the cost of increased signaling will result in performance difference of the schemes depending on parameters, such as speed of the mobile network, its distance from the home network (the network to which mobile network usually belongs), and the number of hosts in the mobile network. Although the effects of the first two parameters on the performance of the schemes have been studied, effects of increasing the number of hosts have not been studied. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate performance when the number of hosts is increased. We perform the evaluation through ns-2 simulation. Results show that the performance superiority achieved by the hosts?? route optimization is only affected by the distance significantly only when the number of hosts is small. The results will help to decide when to use the route optimization for hosts depending on the values of the parameters.     

Semi-supervised superpixel classification for medical images segmentation: application to detection of glaucoma disease

Glaucoma is a disease characterized by damaging the optic nerve head, this can result in severe vision loss. An early detection and a good treatment provided by the ophthalmologist are the keys to preventing optic nerve damage and vision loss from glaucoma. Its screening is based on the manual optic cup and disc segmentation to measure the vertical cup to disc ratio (CDR). However, obtaining the regions of interest by the expert ophthalmologist can be difficult and is often a tedious task. In most cases, the unlabeled images are more numerous than the labeled ones.We propose an automatic glaucoma screening approach named Super Pixels for Semi-Supervised Segmentation “SP3S”, which is a semi-supervised superpixel-by-superpixel classification method, consisting of three main steps. The first step has to prepare the labeled and unlabeled data, applying the superpixel method and bringing in an expert for the labeling of superpixels. In the second step, We incorporate prior knowledge of the optic cup and disc by including color and spatial information. In the final step, semi-supervised learning by the Co-forest classifier is trained only with a few number of labeled superpixels and a large number of unlabeled superpixels to generate a robust classifier. For the estimation of the optic cup and disc regions, the active geometric shape model is used to smooth the disc and cup boundary for the calculation of the CDR. The obtained results for glaucoma detection, via an automatic cup and disc segmentation, established a potential solution for glaucoma screening. The SP3S performance shows quantitatively and qualitatively similar correspondence with the expert segmentation, providing an interesting tool for semi-automatic recognition of the optic cup and disc in order to achieve a medical progress of glaucoma disease.     

Evolution of the AgCdO Contact Material Surface Microstructure with the Number of Arcs

This paper describes a study of the evolution of the AgCdO contact material surface microstructure as a function of the number of electrical arcs imposed on the switching surface. Five power switching devices were tested under different conditions. They were subjected to, respectively, 1, 2, 3, 10, and 100 electrical arcs under the same operating conditions: supply current of 400 A, circuit voltage of 28 V direct current (DC), and resistive load. For the analysis, a binocular microscope and a scanning electron microscope with an energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometer were used.     

Electric Field Integral Equations for Electromagnetic Scattering Problems With Electrically Small and Electrically Large Regions

Numerically stable electric field integral equations (EFIE) are presented for electromagnetic scattering problems that may include both electrically small geometrically complex and electrically large regions. A reduced integrand is achieved by implementing quasi-static assumptions in the electrically small regions, full-wave methods in the electrically large regions, and applying appropriate coupling relations between the regions. Use of the method provides computational efficiency as well as insight into the conditions under which the electromagnetic fields within electrically small regions of the problem can be assumed to be primarily capacitive or inductive in nature. The theoretical development of the method is highlighted in this communication and then applied to examples of electrically small, inductively-loaded, and capacitively-loaded monopole antennas. The accuracy of the results is verified with two independent methods.     

Nonmonotonic Coupled Dissolution-Precipitation Reactions at the Mineral–Water Interface

Dissolution is inherent to fluid-mineral systems. Yet its impact on minerals reacting with electrolytes is overlooked. Here, a novel nonmonotonic behavior for the surface interactions of carbonates (calcite and Mg-calcite) with organic acids is reported. Applying a bioinspired approach, Mg-calcite sensors via amorphous precursors, avoiding any preconditioning with functional groups are synthesized. A quartz crystal microbalance is used to study the mass changes of the mineral on contact with organic acids under varying ionic conditions, temperatures, and flow velocities. Supported by confocal Raman microscopy and potentiometric titrations, nonmonotonous mass developments are found as a function of Ca²⁺ concentration and flowrate, and attributed to three coupled chemical reactions: i) carbonate dissolution via Ca²⁺ ion complexation with organic molecules, and the formation of organo-calcium compounds as ii) a surface phase at the mineral–water interface, and iii) particles in the bulk fluid. These processes depend on local ion contents and the precipitation onset (i.e., saturation index) of organo-calcium salts, both of which substantially differ in the bulk fluid and in the fluid boundary layer at mineral interfaces. This continuum between dissolution and precipitation provides a conceptual framework to address reactions at mineral interfacial across disciplines including biomineralization, ocean acidification and reservoir geochemistry.