Heterogeneous networking

In this article, security challenges related to a mobile heterogeneous networking environment, and the general access patterns are discussed. A novel, unified networking architecture that enables secure heterogeneous networking, both in terms of networks and user devices is discussed. A comprehensive security framework providing a generalized authentication scheme using the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is then presented, by taking into account existing methods for secure network and device access.     

Effect of Ni7+ Ion Irradiation on Structure and Ammonia Sensing Properties of Thermally Oxidized Zinc and Indium Films

ZnO and In2O3 films were prepared by thermal oxidation of vacuum deposited zinc and indium films, respectively onto the glass substrate at 30 C. The fabricated films have been irradiated with 100-MeV Ni7+ ions at different fluences ranging from 5×1011 to 5×1013 ions/cm2. The structural and gas sensing properties of pristine and irradiated films have been discussed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of pristine and irradiated films reveal that the films are polycrystalline in nature and crystallinity increases after irradiation. In this study, highly porous In2O3 nanorods evolved when being irradiated at a fluence of 5×1013 ions/cm2 while ZnO film shows decrease in number of nanowires. The ammonia sensing performance of the Ni7+ irradiated In2O3 films shows an improvement as compared to its pristine counterpart.     

Failure strain as the key design criterion for fracture of natural fibre composites

Natural fibre composites are often considered to be problematic because of the high variability in their mechanical properties. This short communication considers the statistical variation in the two key fracture properties (strain and strength) for data obtained from tests on 785 jute technical fibres. The fibre strength does have high variability, which arises from the difficulty of determining an accurate fibre cross-sectional area (CSA). Failure strain is more consistent as this property is independent of the fibre cross-section. The authors therefore recommend that the use of failure strain as the key design criterion for natural fibre composites would expedite the adoption of these materials in the market.     

In vitro batch fecal fermentation comparison of gas and short-chain fatty acid production using "slowly fermentable" dietary fibers

Abstract: Sustained colonic fermentation supplies beneficial fermentative by‐products to the distal colon, which is particularly prone to intestinal ailments. Blunted/delayed initial fermentation may also lead to less bloating. Previously, we reported that starch‐entrapped alginate‐based microspheres act as a slowly fermenting dietary fiber. This material was used in the present study to provide a benchmark to compare to other “slowly fermentable” fibers. Dietary fibers with previous reports of slow fermentation, namely, long‐chain inulin, psyllium, alkali‐soluble corn bran arabinoxylan, and long‐chain β‐glucan, as well as starch‐entrapped microspheres were subjected to in vitro upper gastrointestinal digestion and human fecal fermentation and measured over 48 h for pH, gas, and short‐chain fatty acids (SCFA). The resistant fraction of cooked and cooled potato starch was used as another form of fermentable starch and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) served as a fast fermenting control. Corn bran arabinoxylan and long‐chain β‐glucan initially appeared slower fermenting with comparatively low gas and SCFA production, but later fermented rapidly with little remaining in the final half of the fermentation period. Long‐chain inulin and psyllium had slow and moderate, but incomplete, fermentation. The resistant fraction of cooked and cooled potato starch fermented rapidly and appeared similar to FOS. In conclusion, compared to the benchmark slowly fermentable starch‐entrapped microspheres, a number of the purported slowly fermentable fibers fermented fairly rapidly overall and, of this group, only the starch‐entrapped microspheres appreciably fermented in the second half of the fermentation period. Practical Application: Consumption of dietary fibers, particularly commercial prebiotics, leads to uncomfortable feelings of bloating and flatulence due to their rapid degradation in our large intestine. This article employs claimed potential slowly fermenting fibers and compares their fermentation rates with a benchmark slow fermenting fiber that we fabricated in an in vitro simulation of the human digestive system. Results show a variety of fermentation profiles only some of which have slow and extended rate of fermentation.     

Understanding the relationship between intensity and gratifications of Facebook use among adolescents and young adults

Facebook is a well-known computer-mediated communication platform considered popular among adolescents and young adults. New media scholars have coined the term “intensity of Facebook use” (IFU) for the concept that measures the emotional and affective attitude towards Facebook use among young people. IFU is an important service use concept that has been positively linked with the different psychosocial outcomes of student well-being. However, only a limited amount of the prior literature has investigated the relationship between IFU and different Facebook uses and gratifications (U&G). The existing literature suggests inconsistent findings with a sole emphasis on young adults. To address these gaps, the present study has investigated the differential role of different Facebook U&G among adolescents and young adults in predicting IFU. A total of three cross-sectional data sets (N = 373, 107, 105) represented adolescents and university-attending young-adult Facebook users. The study results suggest that process U&G do and content U&G do not play any significant role in predicting IFU. Adolescents and young adults differ in their sought Facebook U&G. In addition to this, cultural differences were observed in the sought Facebook U&G and their differential role in predicting IFU.     

Effect of metakaolin on the near surface characteristics of concrete

Results on an investigation dealing with the effect of metakaolin (MK) on the near surface characteristics of concrete are presented in this paper. A control concrete having cement content 450 kg/m³ and w/c of 0.45 was designed. Cement was replaced with three percentages (5, 10, and 15%) of metakaolin weight. Tests were conducted for initial surface absorption, sorptivity, water absorption and compressive strength at the ages of 35, 56, and 84 days. Test results indicated that with the increase in MK content from 5 to 15%, there was a decrease in the initial surface absorption, decrease in the sorptivity till 10% metakaolin replacement. But at 15% MK replacement an increase in sorptivity was observed. All mixtures showed low water absorption characteristic i.e. less than 10%. Compressive strength shared an inverse relation with sorptivity. Higher MK replacements of 15% are not helpful in improving inner core durability, even though it helps in improving surface durability characteristics.     

Bandwidth and Gain Enhancement of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna (RMPA) Using Slotted Array Technique

Wireless Personal Communications - An inherent disadvantage of a Microstrip Patch Antenna (MPA) is its narrow bandwidth and low gain. There are various techniques in the market that either enhances...     

Enhancing Coverage Using Weight Based Clustering in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy conservation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is a fundamental issue. For certain surveillance applications in WSN, coverage lifetime is an important issue and this is related to energy consumption significantly. In order to handle these two interlinked aspects in WSN, a new scheme named Weight based Coverage Enhancing Protocol (WCEP) has been introduced. The WCEP aims to obtain longer full coverage and better network life time. The WCEP is based on assigning different weight values to certain governing parameters which are residual energy, overlapping degree, node density and degree of sensor node. These governing parameters affect the energy and coverage aspects predominantly. Further, these four different parameters are prime elements in cluster formation process and node scheduling mechanisms. The weight values help in selection of an optimal group of Cluster Heads and Cluster Members, which result in enhancement of complete coverage lifetime. The simulation results indicate that WCEP performs better in terms of energy consumption also. The enhancement of value 24% in full coverage lifetime has been obtained as compared to established existing techniques.

     

Aza-Michael Addition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">γ</Emphasis>-Aminopropylsilatranes to Substituted N-Phenylmaleimides: Design and Synthesis of a Heterocyclic Amine Receptor and Their Preliminary Antimicrobial Studies

An efficient method for C-N bond formation via aza-Michael addition of γ-aminopropylsilatranes to substituted N-phenylmaleimides under mild conditions is described. The five receptors enclosing the maleimide moiety have been synthesized by the aza-Michael addition to strong nucleophile γ-aminopropylsilatrane producing silatranes possessing substituted N-phenylsuccinimide at the axial position without any catalyst. All the compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic techniques and thermo-gravimetric analysis. The synthesized compounds have been screened for possible antimicrobial properties and results have shown modest activity.     

K-DDoS-SDN: A distributed DDoS attacks detection approach for protecting SDN environment

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an advanced networking paradigm that decouples forwarding control logic from the data plane. Therefore, it provides a loosely-coupled architecture between the control and data plane. This separation provides flexibility in the SDN environment for addressing any transformations. Further, it delivers a centralized way of managing networks due to control logic embedded in the SDN controller. However, this advanced networking paradigm has been facing several security issues, such as topology spoofing, exhausting bandwidth, flow table updating, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A DDoS attack is one of the most powerful menaces to the SDN environment. Further, the central data controller of SDN becomes the primary target of DDoS attacks. In this article, we propose a Kafka-based distributed DDoS attacks detection approach for protecting the SDN environment named K-DDoS-SDN. The K-DDoS-SDN consists of two modules: (i) Network traffic classification (NTClassification) module and (ii) Network traffic storage (NTStorage) module. The NTClassification module is the detection approach designed using scalable H2O ML techniques in a distributed manner and deployed an efficient model on the two-nodes Kafka Streams cluster to classify incoming network traces in real-time. The NTStorage module collects raw packets, network flows, and 21 essential attributes and then systematically stores them in the HDFS to re-train existing models. The proposed K-DDoS-SDN designed and evaluated using the recent and publically available CICDDoS2019 dataset. The average classification accuracy of the proposed distributed K-DDoS-SDN for classifying network traces into legitimate and one of the most popular attacks, such as DDoS_UDP is 99.22%. Further, the outcomes demonstrate that proposed distributed K-DDoS-SDN classifies traffic traces into five categories with at least 81% classification accuracy.