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.     

Swift heavy ion induced ordering and piezoelectric β-phase in poly(vinylidene fluoride)

Ion flux dependent swift heavy ions (SHI) induced structural changes have been reported for pristine poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF). Ordering phenomena has been observed first followed by its transformation from α to β-form (polar metastable piezoelectric phase). The ordering of (020) plane become prominent at higher ion flux SHI irradiation and its further increase induces structural change from α to β phase as revealed by XRD and FTIR analyses. Structural changes are also supported by morphological evidence and thermal studies before and after SHI irradiation.     

Tailoring the Microstructure of Coarse-Grained HAZ in Steel for Large Heat Input Welding: Effect of Ti–Mg–Ce–V Inclusion/Precipitation Particles

In this study, a novel Ti–Mg–Ce–V-treated steel was designed for large heat input welding. The addition of Ce in Ti → Mg deoxidation process ensured sufficient Ti–Mg–Ce oxide inclusions in steel. The complex precipitation of V further improved the nucleation ability of ferrite. At simulated heat input of 500 kJ/cm, significant austenite pinning effect and intragranular ferrite nucleation were realized concurrently. A fine-grained microstructure with high impact toughness was obtained.

     

Erratum to: First-Principles Investigation of Electronic Properties of GaAsxSb1 – x Ternary Alloys

Semiconductors - erratum     

Adaptive Modulation and Coding for Performance Enhancement of Vehicular Communication

With the advancements and increase in the transportation system in the current scenario, making transports intelligent is an important aspect for enhancing the safety, security and related commercial applications. Vehicular ad-hoc network has been evolved for the implementation of intelligent transportation systems. Vehicular scenario comprising of multipath fading, interference, dispersion and mobility distort the communication among the vehicles and between vehicles and surroundings. This work implements adaptive modulation and coding technique in the existing vehicular communication transmission process. Simulations were carried out for different transmission schemes with different code rate over several wireless channels for varying signal-to-noise ratio for performance evaluation. The results of this simulation testify that the proposed technique serves better than fixed transmission scheme in terms of bit error rate and spectral efficiency. Adaptive modulation together with turbo coding shows an approximate gain of 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio relative to fixed schemes.

     

Hybrid Nanoscale Architecture for Enhancement of Antimicrobial Activity: Immobilization of Silver Nanoparticles on Thiol‐Functionalized Polymer Crystallized on Carbon Nanotubes

We describe here the synthesis and antimicrobial activity of an innovative nanohybrid system, characterized by attachment of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to the thiol‐functionalized polymer that was periodically crystallized on carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The synthesis of the nanohybrid architecture first involved direct crystallization of thiol‐functionalized copolymer along the long axis of CNTs, followed by attachment of AgNPs to the thiol‐group of functionalized copolymer. The antimicrobial activity was assessed in terms of interaction with Escherichia coli, where the constituents of the nanohybrid structure play a synergistic role. The antimicrobial activity was approximately four orders of magnitude greater than the ex situ precipitated bare AgNPs. Possible mechanisms underlying enhanced antimicrobial activity are discussed. The study underscores the potential of uniquely combining CNTs and biopolymers for biomedical applications, in the present case, antimicrobial activity.