Key-dependent side-channel cube attack on CRAFT

CRAFT is a tweakable block cipher introduced in 2019 that aims to provide strong protection against differential fault analysis. In this paper, we show that CRAFT is vulnerable to side-channel cube attacks. We apply side-channel cube attacks to CRAFT with the Hamming weight leakage assumption. We found that the first half of the secret key can be recovered from the Hamming weight leakage after the first round. Next, using the recovered key bits, we continue our attack to recover the second half of the secret key. We show that the set of equations that are solvable varies depending on the value of the key bits. Our result shows that 99.90% of the key space can be fully recovered within a practical time.     

Phytoplankton primary production, chlorophyll-a and nutrient concentrations in the water column of mountainous Lake Phewa, Nepal

The seasonal patterns of phytoplankton primary production, chlorophyll‐a concentration, cell number and several other limnological variables in Lake Phewa, located in the active monsoon zone in Central Himalaya, Nepal, were studied for a year beginning in April 2001. During the study period, the gross primary production and chlorophyll‐a concentrations were relatively low during the monsoon season. The phytoplankton cell number, represented by 24 genera, also fluctuated seasonally, but tended to increase in the pre‐ and post‐monsoon period. These results suggest that the monsoon plays a crucial role in the primary production and phytoplankton dynamics for Lake Phewa. Among the phytoplankton species, Microcystis aeruginosa, a representative species for eutrophic lakes, was the dominant phytoplankton. At the same time, however, it is clear that the lake is not yet heavily eutrophic. The present study suggests that the exchange of lake water during the monsoon season contributes to maintaining the health of the lake against further degradation. Nevertheless, the silt carried in the monsoon rain run‐off from the lake's catchment area suggests increasingly serious degradation problems for this small mountainous lake.     

Synthesis and characterization of biocompatible hydroxyapatite coated ferrite

Ferrite particles coated with biocompatible phases can be used for hyperthermia treatment of cancer. We have synthesized substituted calcium hexaferrite, which is not stable on its own but is stabilized with small substitution of La. Hexaferrite of chemical composition (CaO)_0.75(La₂0₃)_0.20(Fe₂O₃)₆ was prepared using citrate gel method. Hydroxyapatite was prepared by precipitating it from aqueous solution of Ca(NO₃)₂ and (NH₄)₂HPO₄ maintaining pH above 11. Four different methods were used for coating of hydroxyapatite on ferrite particles. SEM with EDX and X-ray diffraction analysis shows clear evidence of coating of hydroxyapatite on ferrite particles. These coated ferrite particles exhibited coercive field up to 2 kOe, which could be made useful for hysteresis heating in hyperthermia. Studies by culturing BHK-21 cells and WBC over the samples show evidence of biocompatibility. SEM micrographs and cell counts give clear indication of cell growth on the surface of the sample. Finally coated ferrite particle was implanted in Kasaulli mouse to test its biocompatibility. The magnetic properties and biocompatibility studies show that these hydroxyapatite coated ferrites could be useful for hyperthermia.     

Thermal and hydraulic performance of a modified two-stage evaporative cooler

The thermal and hydraulic performance of a modified two-stage evaporative cooler is evaluated. Variables considered are the mode of operation, packing thickness, mass flow rate of the water flowing to the precooler, and the mass flux of water flowing over the packing media. The effectiveness of the system increased with the increase of the mass flow rate of water flowing to the precooler, decreasing the mass flux of water flowing to the packing, and with the increase of the packing thickness. The effectiveness of the system with structured packing was higher than that with sheathy leaf base or natural fiber packing.The air-side pressure drop per unit length in the direction of air flow was nearly constant when the structured packing was used. For the sheathy leaf and natural fiber packings, the air pressure drop increased at a uniform rate as the mass flux of water flowing over the packing increased. The air pressure drop was lowest for the setup with the structured packing.     

Restoration of small lakes through cooperative management: A suitable strategy for poverty‐laden areas in developing countries?

Lake Rupa is a small, subtropical, shallow lake with a surface area of 100 ha situated 600 m a.s.l. in Central Himalaya, Nepal. This degraded lake was studied between 2000 and 2006, with the goal of determining whether or not it could be restored by a community‐based cooperative of local people living in its catchment. Main threats to the lake, its aquatic life and its very existence include encroachment by excessive aquatic vegetation, sedimentation, and low in‐lake concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO). Small lakes (≤ 500 ha) are relatively prone to the process of ‘succession and climax’, although they also can be of social, environmental and ecological importance. Thus, their disappearance could spark social chaos and disorder in areas already having to cope with other rapid environmental changes. This means that credible mechanisms for revitalizing or protecting small lakes are an important goal. Accordingly, a lake cooperative of 329 households living in close vicinity to Lake Rupa was formed in 2002, by prioritizing traditional fishers, women and other deprived community members with the goals of respecting the citizenry and equity. Following the cooperative's campaigns directed at weed removal and fish stocking, encroachment of vegetation on the lake margins was halted, its aquatic weeds became under control, and its fisheries improved. In addition to the cooperative's restoration activities, several water quality parameters, including water transparency and DO and chlorophyll‐a concentrations, were monitored on a monthly basis. The measured water transparency was inconsistent, exhibiting large variations between 2000 and 2003. Relatively low, but consistent, values, however, were measured after 2004. The results imply that the removal of weeds, and sufficient nutrients and solar radiation are subsequently available to the lake's phytoplankton communities. Supporting this notion is that the chlorophyll‐a concentration spiked to 205 µg L⁻¹ in November 2006, the water transparency became consistent, and the DO concentration increased to >3.8 mg L⁻¹ during the critical months (March–May) after 2004. These water quality indicators indicated improvement in the degraded Lake Rupa, suggesting that the establishment of cooperatives such as that highlighted in this study could be a powerful and sustainable mechanism for restoring degraded lakes in similar socioeconomic settings by maintaining equity, by connecting communities with their resources, and by facilitating integrity, equity, citizenry and social justice.     

Optimization Models for Layout and Pipe Design for Storm Sewer Systems

Optimization models are developed for simultaneously determining the pipe layout and the pipe design for storm sewer systems. The pipe design process includes computation of commercial diameters, slopes, and crown elevations for the storm sewer pipes. The optimization models aim to minimize the total costs of the layout and the pipe design for most of system elements. The optimization models are formulated as a 0–1 Integer Nonlinear Programming problem and solved using the General Algebraic Modeling System without the use of heuristic models which were characteristic of all previous models for the simultaneous determine of the pipe layout and pipe design of sewer networks. The models are based upon two different optimization approaches: (1) considers one or more commercial diameters of pipe connecting two manholes and (2) considers only one commercial diameter in a pipe connecting two manholes. The commercial diameters, pipe slopes, crown elevations, and total costs of the storm sewer system were compared for the two approaches using an example that illustrates the savings in cost by allowing multiple pipe sizes. The two new optimization modeling approaches developed herein can simultaneously determine the minimum cost pipe design (commercial diameters, slopes, and crown elevations) and pipe layout of storm sewer systems and satisfy all design constraints.

     

Intermetallic phases in Al-Mn alloys

The intermetallic phases present in high-purity and commercial purity Al-Mn alloys (up to 2% Mn) in as-cast and heat-treated conditions were extracted electrolytically in 10% HCl in methanol solution and identified by X-ray diffraction. As iron is known to increase the coarse cast-intermetallic particles and to cause refinement of the grain size after recrystallization, different amounts of iron (up to 0.5%) were added and the resulting intermetallic phases were extracted and identified with and without heat treatment. The unidentified phase -Al (Mn, Fe)Si, reported by Sperry and others, was recognized as corresponding for ASTM card number 6-0669 and the conditions favourable for its formation were determined. This phase may be responsible for refining the grain size after recrystallization in commercial purity alloys as compared to high-purity Al-Mn alloys and may therefore be tried as an inoculant (by adding powdered compound to liquid alloys) for grain refining.     

Gurum Seeds: A Potential Source of Edible Oil

Cucurbitaceae family seeds are mostly discarded as agro-industrial wastes. Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. colocynthoide) is an underutilized wild cucurbit plant, closely related to desert watermelon, which is grown abundantly in some African countries. Gurum seeds can play a significant role in health and nutrition due to their high oil content. This review describes the nutritional composition of gurum seeds and their oil profile. Gurum seeds are a good source of oil (27–35.5%), fiber (26–31%), crude protein (15–18%), and carbohydrates (14–17%). Gurum seeds oil is extracted by supercritical CO₂ (SFE), screw press, and solvent extraction techniques. The gurum seeds oil is composed of unsaturated fatty acids with a high proportion of linoleic acid (C18:2) and oleic acid (C18:1). Gurum seeds oil contains various bioactive compounds, such as tocopherols, phytosterols, and polyphenols. It is reported that solvent extraction gives a higher yield than the screw press and SFE, but the SFE is preferred due to safety issues. More studies are required for producing better quality gurum seeds oil by using novel extraction techniques that can increase oil yield.     

Automatic classifier selection for non-experts

Choosing a suitable classifier for a given dataset is an important part of developing a pattern recognition system. Since a large variety of classification algorithms are proposed in literature, non-experts do not know which method should be used in order to obtain good classification results on their data. Meta-learning tries to address this problem by recommending promising classifiers based on meta-features computed from a given dataset. In this paper, we empirically evaluate five different categories of state-of-the-art meta-features for their suitability in predicting classification accuracies of several widely used classifiers (including Support Vector Machines, Neural Networks, Random Forests, Decision Trees, and Logistic Regression). Based on the evaluation results, we have developed the first open source meta-learning system that is capable of accurately predicting accuracies of target classifiers. The user provides a dataset as input and gets an automatically created high-performance ready-to-use pattern recognition system in a few simple steps. A user study of the system with non-experts showed that the users were able to develop more accurate pattern recognition systems in significantly less development time when using our system as compared to using a state-of-the-art data mining software.