An adaptive and efficient buffer management scheme for resource-constrained delay tolerant networks

Provisioning buffer management mechanism is especially crucial in resource-constrained delay tolerant networks (DTNs) as maximum data delivery ratio with minimum overhead is expected in highly congested environments. However, most DTN protocols do not consider resource limitations (e.g., buffer, bandwidth) and hence, results in performance degradation. To strangle and mitigate the impact of frequent buffer overflows, this paper presents an adaptive and efficient buffer management scheme called size-aware drop (SAD) that strives to improve buffer utilization and avoid unnecessary message drops. To improve data delivery ratio, SAD exactly determines the requirement based on differential of newly arrived message(s) and available space. To vacate inevitable space from a congested buffer, SAD strives to avoid redundant message drops and deliberate to pick and discard most appropriate message(s) to minimize overhead. The performance of SAD is validated through extensive simulations in realistic environments (i.e., resource-constrained and congested) with different mobility models (i.e., Random Waypoint and disaster). Simulation results demonstrate the performance supremacy of SAD in terms of delivery probability and overhead ratio besides other metrics when compared to contemporary schemes based on Epidemic (DOA and DLA) and PRoPHET (SHLI and MOFO).     

CALCIUM, PHOSPHOROUS AND NITROGENOUS COMPOUND CONTENTS OF CHICKEN BROTH FROM BROILER BREAST FRAMES AS AFFECTED BY VARIOUS ACIDULANTS

The effect of acidulants on the total nitrogen, pH, gelatin, calcium, and phosphorous contents of chicken broth was investigated. Acidulants used included: ascorbic, acetic, citric, lactic, and phosphoric acids. All acidulants at a 0.50% level increased (P<0.05) the calcium and phosphorous contents of the broth prepared from broiler breast frames. The highest calcium and phosphorous contents were produced in chicken broths prepared with 0.50% phosphoric acid, followed by citric, lactic, acetic and ascorbic acids. Phosphoric acid-treated broth showed the highest nitrogen and gelatin contents, followed by lactic, citric, acetic, and ascorbic acids, in that order. As phosphoric acid concentration increased from 0 to 0.05%, the total nitrogen and gelatin contents of the broth decreased. However, phosphoric acid, at a concentration as low as 0.025%, increased (P<0.05) calcium and phosphorous extraction. Results indicated that acidulants could be used for the processing of high calcium and phosphorous chicken broth from broiler breast frames.     

Cloud authorization: exploring techniques and approach towards effective access control framework

Despite the various attractive features that Cloud has to offer, the rate of Cloud migration is rather slow, primarily due to the serious security and privacy issues that exist in the paradigm. One of the main problems in this regard is that of authorization in the Cloud environment, which is the focus of our research. In this paper, we present a systematic analysis of the existing authorization solutions in Cloud and evaluate their effectiveness against well-established industrial standards that conform to the unique access control requirements in the domain. Our analysis can benefit organizations by helping them decide the best authorization technique for deployment in Cloud; a case study along with simulation results is also presented to illustrate the procedure of using our qualitative analysis for the selection of an appropriate technique, as per Cloud consumer requirements. From the results of this evaluation, we derive the general shortcomings of the extant access control techniques that are keeping them from providing successful authorization and, therefore, widely adopted by the Cloud community. To that end, we enumerate the features an ideal access control mechanisms for the Cloud should have, and combine them to suggest the ultimate solution to this major security challenge – access control as a service (ACaaS) for the software as a service (SaaS) layer. We conclude that a meticulous research is needed to incorporate the identified authorization features into a generic AcaaS framework that should be adequate for providing high level of extensibility and security by integrating multiple access control models.     

Enhanced conversion efficiency of quasi solid state dye sensitized solar cells based on functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes incorporated TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> photoanode

A series of quasi solid state dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated based on the different weight% of MWCNT@TiO₂ photoanode. The MWCNT@TiO₂ nanocomposites were synthesized by simple wet impregation method. The incorporation of MWCNT into the TiO₂ was confirmed by X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectrum and UV–visible spectroscopy. The morphological properties of the nanocomposites were analyzed by transmission electron microscopic analysis. The performance of the quasi solid state dye sensitized solar cell depends solely on the MWCNT content of the photoanode, as the same PVA polymer gel electrolyte has been used. Compared to the conventional TiO₂ photoanode based DSSCs 0.05 wt% MWCNT containing photoanode provide the maximum short circuit current density and the photo conversion efficiency of 9.811 mA/cm^?2 and 3.59 %. The introduction of MWCNT into the TiO₂ results in the rapid electron transport in the photoanode by forming a conductive network due to which improvement in the short circuit current was observed.     

Melanoma localization and classification through faster region-based convolutional neural network and SVM

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Melanoma is a lethal skin cancer disease affecting millions of people around the globe and has a high mortality rate. Dermatologists perform the manual...     

GLUTEN QUALITY PREDICTION AND CORRELATION STUDIES IN SPRING WHEATS

ABSTRACT

Gluten, “cohesive, viscoelastic, proteinaceous material prepared as a by‐product of the starch isolation from wheat flour” and the storage and dough‐forming protein of wheat flour, is the key to the unique ability of wheat to suit the production of leavened products. Wet gluten was only affected by wheat varieties, while dry gluten was affected by wheat varieties, crop years and their interaction. The wet and dry gluten ranged 8.0–43.13% and 2.58–14.55%, respectively, and were positively correlated with Zeleny value, sodium dodecyl sulfate sedimentation value and falling number. The gluten content was higher in Pavon, SA 42 and Faisalabad 85, while Zeleny value was higher in GA 02 and C 518, resulting in better gluten quality. Zeleny value was negatively correlated with crude protein content (r = –0.1857*). The lowest amount of wet and dry gluten was detected in Triticale and durum wheats as compared to common wheats. Zeleny value and sedimentation value may be used as indicators of gluten content and quality while working on wheats. The information thus collected will be valuable for cereal chemists and wheat breeders for improvements in their future breeding programs.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

This research work will be a breakthrough and helpful for wheat breeders, growers, millers and bakers for their intended uses as every consumer demand specific wheat quality characteristics for their end products.

     

Image Authenticity Detection Using DWT and Circular Block-Based LTrP Features

Copy-move forgery is the most common type of digital image manipulation, in which the content from the same image is used to forge it. Such manipulations are performed to hide the desired information. Therefore, forgery detection methods are required to identify forged areas. We have introduced a novel method for features computation by employing a circular block-based method through local tetra pattern (LTrP) features to detect the single and multiple copy-move attacks from the images. The proposed method is applied over the circular blocks to efficiently and effectively deal with the post-processing operations. It also uses discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for dimension reduction. The obtained approximate image is distributed into circular blocks on which the LTrP algorithm is employed to calculate the feature vector as the LTrP provides detailed information about the image content by utilizing the direction-based relation of central pixel to its neighborhoods. Finally, Jeffreys and Matusita distance is used for similarity measurement. For the evaluation of the results, three datasets are used, namely MICC-F220, MICC-F2000, and CoMoFoD. Both the qualitative and quantitative analysis shows that the proposed method exhibits state-of-the-art performance under the presence of post-processing operations and can accurately locate single and multiple copy-move forgery attacks on the images.     

TUNING PID CONTROLLERS USING ERROR-INTEGRAL CRITERIA AND RESPONSE SURFACES BASED OPTIMIZATION

A method for tuning a Proportional, Integral, Derivative (PID) controller in order to optimize its response is presented. A state-space realization of the controller and the plant is used. A response surface approximation-based optimization approach is used to minimize the number of detailed controller response analyses. A heuristic algorithm is used to select designs that are close to D-optimal designs to construct the initial linear approximation. The tuning methodology is directly applicable to multi-input, multi-output control systems and is shown to obtain improved results compared to the traditional tuning techniques such as Ziegler-Nichols method. Realistic applications are provided to illustrate the method outlined in this paper.