To what end? Drip irrigation and the water–energy–food nexus in Morocco

This article draws on three case studies of drip irrigation adoption in Morocco to consider the water–energy–food nexus concept from a bottom-up perspective. Findings indicate that small farmers' adoption of drip irrigation is conditional, that water and energy efficiency does not necessarily reduce overall consumption, and that adoption of drip irrigation (and policies supporting it) can create winners and losers. The article concludes that, although the water–energy–food WEF nexus concept may offer useful insights, its use in policy formulation should be tempered with caution. Technical options that appear beneficial at the conceptual level can have unintended consequences in practice, and policies focused on issues of scarcity and efficiency may exacerbate other dimensions of poverty and inequality.     

Self-stabilizing algorithm for high service availability in spite of concurrent topology changes in ad hoc mobile networks

Mobile nodes in ad hoc networks move freely and run out of battery power so quickly, which leads to frequent network partitioning. Network partitioning considerably reduces service availability when the server node is not in the same partition as the client nodes. In order to provide a continuous service availability for all mobile nodes, we propose a self-stabilizing algorithm that can tolerate multiple concurrent topological changes and can incur a cost of one server per long-lived connected component. By using (1) the time interval-based computations concept that distinguishes between disjoint and concurrent computations, and (2) Markov chain model, the proposed algorithm can within a finite time converge to a legitimate state even if topological changes occur during the convergence time. Our simulation results show that the algorithm can ensure very high service availability, and each node has a strong path to the server of its network component over 98% of the time.     

Balancing the tradeoffs between scalability and availability in mobile ad hoc networks with a flat hashing-based location service

In this paper, we propose FSLS (Flat-based Some-for-some Location Service), a new location service for ad hoc mobile networks. The location service is based on the hash-based sets system that can offer a high location information availability. The network area is divided into non-overlapping zones. A node identifier is mapped to a set of home zones, each of which contains a unique location server, which makes FSLS works as a some-for-some approach. Using cross-layer design, the service can tolerate server mobility and server failures, and last for a long time period. We analyze FSLS and six other existing location services. The theoretical analysis as well as simulation results show that FSLS offers a good trade-off between location availability and scalability. It comes second after a quorum-based location service in terms of location availability and it is the closest competitor to a hierarchical location service in terms of scalability.     

Secure sensors data acquisition and communication protection in eHealthcare: Review on the state of the art

Recent advances in hardware technology have led to the development of low cost, power efficient and more feature rich devices that are amongst the most critical parts of communication networks. These devices or sensors can now sense data with more accuracy, process it by themselves and send it to the neighboring node or the sink node. However, robust and reliable security mechanisms are not yet properly implemented on these sensors due to their limited energy and computation power. Sensors also play a very important role in eHealthcare systems where ubiquitous patient monitoring is performed. As data is generated from the sensor nodes, reliable, secure and attack-resistant data acquisition and transmission is important for an efficient eHealthcare systems. This survey focuses on security issues of sensors data acquisition and transmission protocols, describing their main security features and comparing them in the context of a secure eHealthcare system. A taxonomy of open issues and future challenges is also discussed with respect to specific security metrics described in the paper.     

Authentication schemes for smart mobile devices: threat models,countermeasures, and open research issues

Telecommunication Systems - This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of authentication schemes for smart mobile devices. We start by providing an overview of existing survey articles...     

Sensitivity Indicator for Pressurized Irrigation Distribution Systems

Water Resources Management - Providing adequate pressure at the hydrant is an issue of great importance in the operation of pressurized irrigation distribution systems (PIDS). The hydraulic...     

Silver Triflate‐Catalyzed Cyclization of 2‐Amino‐6‐propargyl‐ amineazines Leading to Iminoimidazoazines

We report here that the silver triflate‐catalyzed cyclization of 2‐amino‐6‐propargylamineazines affords new and highly functionalized iminoimidazoazines. We have investigated the scope and limitations of the present methodology, and some aspects of the reactivity of the resulting iminoimidazopyridines have been explored, and a DFT‐based mechanistic analysis of the silver triflate‐catalyzed cyclization has been undertaken.

     

A novel organometallic ReI complex with favourable properties for bioimaging and applicability in solid-phase peptide synthesis

Organometallic complexes possess great potential for imaging applications in biology, due to their kinetic stability and often favourable intrinsic properties. In this work we present a new class of Re(I) -tricarbonyl complexes with a substituted bis(phenanthridinylmethyl)amine (bpm) ligand. The complex Re(CO)(3) (R-bpm) could be conveniently prepared by microwave synthesis from [Re(CO)(3)(H(2)O)(3) ]Br and a suitably substituted bis(phenanthridinylmethyl)amine (R-bpm). Complex 5, with R=CH(2)-CO(2)-CH(3) , was characterized by a single-crystal X-ray structure. Complex 6 (R=CH(2)-C(6)H(4)-CO(2)H) was used in solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) to label the neurotensin(8-13) (NT) fragment N-terminally. The complexes show luminescence emission with large Stokes shifts (λ(ex) =350 nm, λ(em) =570 nm). Cellular uptake and intracellular localization studies in several cell lines demonstrate the utility of the new Re(CO)(3) (R-bpm) complexes for fluorescence imaging and reveal significant differences between the simple methyl ester 5 and the NT bioconjugate 7.