Security and privacy are the major concerns in cloud computing as users have limited access on the stored data at the remote locations managed by different service providers. These become more ...challenging especially for the data generated from the wearable devices as it is highly sensitive and heterogeneous in nature. Most of the existing techniques reported in the literature are having high computation and communication costs and are vulnerable to various known attacks, which reduce their importance for applicability in real-world environment. Hence, in this paper, we propose a new cloud based user authentication scheme for secure authentication of medical data. After successful mutual authentication between a user and wearable sensor node, both establish a secret session key that is used for future secure communications. The extensively-used Real-Or-Random (ROR) model based formal security analysis and the broadly-accepted Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications (AVISPA) tool based formal security verification show that the proposed scheme provides the session-key security and protects active attacks. The proposed scheme is also informally analyzed to show its resilience against other known attacks. Moreover, we have done a detailed comparative analysis for the communication and computation costs along with security and functionality features which proves its efficiency in comparison to the other existing schemes of its category.
Nowadays, with the large-scale penetration of distributed and renewable energy resources, ES (energy storage) stands out for its ability of adding flexibility, controlling intermittence and providing ...back-up generation to electrical networks. It represents the critical link between the energy supply and demand chains, being a key element for increasing the role and attractiveness of renewable generation into the power grid, providing also numerous technical and economic benefits to the power system stakeholders. On islanded systems and micro-grids, being updated about the state-of-the-art of ES systems and their benefits becomes even more relevant. Hence, in the present paper a comprehensive study and analysis of ES leading technologies' main assets, research issues, global market figures, economic benefits and technical applications is provided. Special emphasis is given to ES on islands, as a new contribution to earlier studies, addressing their particular requirements, the most appropriate technologies and existing operating projects throughout the world.
•Energy storage is a key element for increasing the role and attractiveness of renewable generation.•Numerous technical and economic benefits to the power system stakeholders can be provided.•A comprehensive study and analysis of energy storage leading technologies' is presented.•Special emphasis is given to energy storage on islands, as a new contribution to earlier studies.
A user (external party) is interested in accessing the real-time data from some designated drones of a particular fly zone in the Internet of Drones (IoD) deployment. However, to provide this ...facility, the user needs to be authenticated by an accessed remote drone and vice-versa. After successful authentication both parties can establish a secret session key for the secure communication. To handle this important problem in IoD environment, we design a novel temporal credential based anonymous lightweight user authentication mechanism for IoD environment, called TCALAS. A detailed security analysis using formal security under the broadly applied real-or-random (ROR) model, formal security verification under the broadly used software verification tool, known as automated validation of internet security protocols and applications, and also informal security analysis reveal that TCALAS has the capability to resist various known attacks against passive/active adversary. In addition, a detailed comparative study has been conducted for TCALAS and other related schemes, and the study also reveals that TCALAS provides better security and functionality features, and lower costs in both computation and communication as compared to existing schemes.
Global industry is undergoing major transformations with the genesis of a new paradigm known as the Internet of Things (IoT) with its underlying technologies. Many company leaders are investing more ...effort and money in transforming their services to capitalize on the benefits provided by the IoT. Thereby, the decision makers in public waste management do not want to be outdone, and it is challenging to provide an efficient and real-time waste management system. This paper proposes a solution (hardware, software, and communications) that aims to optimize waste management and include a citizen in the process. The system follows an IoT-based approach where the discarded waste from the smart bin is continuously monitored by sensors that inform the filling level of each compartment, in real-time. These data are stored and processed in an IoT middleware providing information for collection with optimized routes and generating important statistical data for monitoring the waste collection accurately in terms of resource management and the provided services for the community. Citizens can easily access information about the public waste bins through the Web or a mobile application. The creation of the real prototype of the smart container, the development of the waste management application and a real-scale experiment use case for evaluation, demonstration, and validation show that the proposed system can efficiently change the way people deal with their garbage and optimize economic and material resources.
Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is an intelligent application of Internet of Things (IoT) in smart transportation that takes intelligent commitments to the passengers to improve traffic safety and ...efficiency, and generate a more enjoyable driving and riding environment. Fog cloud-based IoV is another variant of mobile cloud computing where vehicular cloud and Internet can co-operate in more effective way in IoV. However, more increasing dependence on wireless communication, control, and computing technology makes IoV more dangerous to prospective attacks. For secure communication among vehicles, road-side units, fog and cloud servers, we design a secure authenticated key management protocol in fog computing-based IoV deployment, called AKM-IoV. In the designed AKM-IoV, after mutual authentication between communicating entities in IoV they establish session keys for secure communications. AKM-IoV is tested for its security analysis using the formal security analysis under the widely accepted real-or-random (ROR) model, informal, and formal security verification using the broadly accepted automated validation of Internet security protocols and applications (AVISPAs) tool. The practical demonstration of AKM-IoV is shown using the NS2 simulation. In addition, a detailed comparative study is conducted to show the efficiency and functionality and security features supported by AKM-IoV as compared to other existing recent protocols.
Ecology of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Willis, A; Rodrigues, B. F; Harris, P. J. C
Critical reviews in plant sciences,
2013, 1/1/2013, 2013-01-00, 20130101, Letnik:
32, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Arbuscular mycorrhiza is a mutually beneficial biological association between species in the fungal phylum Glomeromycota and higher plants roots. The symbiosis is thought to have afforded green ...plants the opportunity to invade dry land ca 450 Ma ago and the vast majority of extant terrestrial plants retain this association. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi perform various ecological functions in exchange for host photosynthetic carbon that almost always contribute to the fitness of hosts from an individual to community level. Recent AM fungal research, increasingly delving into the ‘Black Box’, suggests that species in this phylum may play a key facilitative role in below-ground micro- and meso-organism community dynamics, even more perhaps, that of a bioengineer. The ubiquitous nature of the symbiosis in extant flora and the fact that variations from the AM symbiosis are recent events suggest that Glomeromycota and plant roots coevolved. This review considers aspects of AM fungal ecology emphasizing past and present importance of the phylum in niche to global ecosystem function. Nutrient exchange, evolution, taxonomy, phenology, below-ground microbial interaction, propagule dissemination, invasive plants interactions, the potential role in phytoremediation and some of the factors affecting AM fungal biology are discussed. We conclude that it is essential to include AM association in any study of higher plants in natural environments in order to provide an holistic understanding of ecosystems.
Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) is one of the enabling technologies of the Internet of Things (IoT), and focuses on providing long distance connectivity for a vast amount of smart devices. ...Currently, LoRa is one of the leading LPWAN solutions available for public use. In LPWANs, especially in LoRa, security is a major concern due to the resource constraints of the devices, the sensitivity level of the transmitted data, the large amount of connected devices, among other reasons. This paper studies the key management mechanism of LoRaWAN environments. A secure architecture for key management based on smart contracts and permissioned blockchain to enhance security and availability in LoRaWAN networks is proposed. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed blockchain-based LoRaWAN architecture, a working prototype has been created using open-source tools and commodity hardware. Performance analysis shows that the prototype presents similar execution time and latency values, when compared to a traditional system, especially for small and medium-sized LoRaWAN networks. We also discuss why the proposed solution can be used in environments with a large number of end-devices.
Fog computing is a distributed infrastructure where specific resources are managed at the network border using cloud computing principles and technologies. In contrast to traditional cloud computing, ...fog computing supports latency-sensitive applications with less energy consumption and a reduced amount of data traffic. A fog device is placed at the network border, allowing data collection and processing to be physically close to their end-users. This characteristic is essential for applications that can benefit from improved latency and response time. In particular, in the e-Health field, many solutions rely on real-time data to monitor environments, patients, and/or medical staff, aiming at improving processes and safety. Therefore, fog computing can play an important role in such environments, providing a low latency infrastructure. The main goal of the current research is to present fog computing strategies focused on electronic-Health (e-Health) applications. To the best of our knowledge, this article is the first to propose a review in the scope of applications and challenges of e-Health fog computing. We introduce some of the available e-Health solutions in the literature that focus on latency, security, privacy, energy efficiency, and resource management techniques. Additionally, we discuss communication protocols and technologies, detailing both in an architectural overview from the edge devices up to the cloud. Differently from traditional cloud computing, the fog concept demonstrates better performance in terms of time-sensitive requirements and network data traffic. Finally, based on the evaluation of the current technologies for e-Health, open research issues and challenges are identified, and further research directions are proposed.
The correlations between smartphone sensors, algorithms, and relevant techniques are major components facilitating indoor localization and tracking in the absence of communication and localization ...standards. A major research gap can be noted in terms of explaining the connections between these components to clarify the impacts and issues of models meant for indoor localization and tracking. In this paper, we comprehensively study the smartphone sensors, algorithms, and techniques that can support indoor localization and tracking without the need for any additional hardware or specific infrastructure. Reviews and comparisons detail the strengths and limitations of each component, following which we propose a handheld-device-based indoor localization with zero infrastructure (HDIZI) approach to connect the abovementioned components in a balanced manner. The sensors are the input source, while the algorithms are used as engines in an optimal manner, in order to produce a robust localizing and tracking model without requiring any further infrastructure. The proposed framework makes indoor and outdoor navigation more user-friendly, and is cost-effective for researchers working with embedded sensors in handheld devices, enabling technologies for Industry 4.0 and beyond. We conducted experiments using data collected from two different sites with five smartphones as an initial work. The data were sampled at 10 Hz for a duration of five seconds at fixed locations; furthermore, data were also collected while moving, allowing for analysis based on user stepping behavior and speed across multiple paths. We leveraged the capabilities of smartphones, through efficient implementation and the optimal integration of algorithms, in order to overcome the inherent limitations. Hence, the proposed HDIZI is expected to outperform approaches proposed in previous studies, helping researchers to deal with sensors for the purposes of indoor navigation—in terms of either positioning or tracking—for use in various fields, such as healthcare, transportation, environmental monitoring, or disaster situations.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that has gained a huge user base by facilitating Internet-connected devices being used in numerous applications including smart vehicular ...infrastructure. In this context, we focus on the traditional vehicular ad hoc network that has evolved into a new perception called the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and is expected to soon transform into the Internet of Autonomous Vehicles (IoAV). IoAV hopes to facilitate smart vehicular infrastructure and autonomous driving without the need for human involvement. However, as the number of connected vehicles keeps increasing, so does the need for autonomous decision making. Hence, the IoAV must provide robust, secure, seamless, and scalable communication among the vehicles as well as the roadside units. This article provides an overview of autonomous vehicle communication layers, its associated properties, and security threats. Further, this article also briefly discusses the current research trends and future research issues.
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