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Biometrics in the World of Electronic Borders
Get PDFYesRecently, the demand for border crossing has increased massively, with the aim to increase the processing and clearance speed at border crossing points (BCP). The attempt to improve travel convenience, Border Cross Point (BCP) output, and national security result in automated border control (ABC) with biometric technology having a major effect on the efficiency, and safety of the control processes. The border processing of BCP can be increased by automating biometric recognition and facilitated by clearance procedures. This paper discussed the two structures of an e-gate (ABC) and a prospective benefit of biometrics to the EU border in terms of accuracy, integrity, robustness, and efficiency. Challenges posed by biometrics in border control systems were identified and recommendations such as multimodal systems and smart systems with AI and machine learning were suggested to assist travelers to cross border points faster.e European Union’s Horizon-MSCA-RISE-2019-2023, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Research, and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), titled: Secure and Wireless Multimodal Biometric Scanning Device for Passenger Verification Targeting Land and Sea Border Contro
Stem Cell Niche Microenvironment: Review
Get PDFyesThe cornea comprises a pool of self‐regenerating epithelial cells that are crucial to preserving
clarity and visibility. Limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs), which live in a specialized stem cell
niche (SCN), are crucial for the survival of the human corneal epithelium. They live at the bottom
of the limbal crypts, in a physically enclosed microenvironment with a number of neighboring niche
cells. Scientists also simplified features of these diverse microenvironments for more analysis in situ
by designing and recreating features of different SCNs. Recent methods for regenerating the corneal
epithelium after serious trauma, including burns and allergic assaults, focus mainly on regenerating
the LESCs. Mesenchymal stem cells, which can transform into self‐renewing and skeletal tissues,
hold immense interest in tissue engineering and innovative medicinal exploration. This review
summarizes all types of LESCs, identity and location of the human epithelial stem cells (HESCs),
reconstruction of LSCN, and artificial stem cells for self‐renewal
Advancing the Understanding of the Role of Responsible AI in the Continued Use of IoMT in Healthcare
Get PDFNoThis paper examines the continuous intention by healthcare professionals to use the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) in combination with responsible artificial intelligence (AI). Using the theory of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), a model was developed to determine the continuous intention to use IoMT taking into account the risks and complexity involved in using AI. Data was gathered from 276 healthcare professionals through a survey questionnaire across hospitals in Bahrain. Empirical outcomes reveal nine significant relationships amongst the constructs. The findings show that despite contradictions associated with AI, continuous intention to use behaviour can be predicted during the diffusion of IoMT. This study advances the under- standing of the role of responsible AI in the continued use of IoMT in healthcare and extends DOI to address the diffusion of two innovations concurrently
Stressors and coping mechanisms of family care-givers of older relatives living with long-term conditions in mainland China: A scoping review of the evidence
No full textYesAs the ageing population in China continues to grow, more people will be living with long-term health conditions and require support from family care-givers. This scoping review therefore aims to explore sources of stress and coping mechanisms adopted by care-givers of older relatives living with long-term conditions in mainland China. Literature searches were conducted in English (CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and SCOPUS) and Chinese (CNKI, WANFANG DATA, CQVIP and CBM) databases between October and November 2019. The searches focused on the stressors and coping mechanisms utilised by family care-givers residing in the community. Narrative synthesis was used to identify themes within the data. Forty-six papers were included: 20 papers from English and 26 from Chinese databases. Six themes captured stressors: care-giving time (N = 22), financial resources (N = 17), role and personal strains (N = 42), preparedness (N = 4), social roles (N = 10) and lack of adequate formal support (N = 22); and one theme captured coping (N = 14). Unmet needs of care-givers of older relatives in mainland China were found to be extensive. Only a few studies had attempted to explore the causal link between stressors, coping and the influence of culture. Findings underscore the significance of adequately capturing intricacies around care-givers’ unmet needs, rather than generalising on the basis of culture. Qualitative studies are critical to providing a better understanding of the relationship between stressors, coping and resources afforded to care-givers by their cultural environment. Having such understanding is crucial to inform the development of competent care, which promotes self-efficacy and self-actualisation in care-givers in mainland China.Research England: Quality Related Global Challenge Research Fund (QR-GCRF)
Flyback photovoltaic micro-inverter with a low cost and simple digital-analog control scheme
No full textYesThe single-stage flyback Photovoltaic (PV) micro-inverter is considered as a simple and small in size topology but requires expensive digital microcontrollers such as Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to increase the system efficiency, this would increase the cost of the overall system. To solve this problem, based on a single-stage flyback structure, this paper proposed a low cost and simple analog-digital control scheme. This control scheme is implemented using a low cost ATMega microcontroller built in the Arduino Uno board and some analog operational amplifiers. First, the single-stage flyback topology is analyzed theoretically and then the design consideration is obtained. Second, a 120 W prototype was developed in the laboratory to validate the proposed control. To prove the effectiveness of this control, we compared the cost price, overall system efficiency, and THD values of the proposed results with the results obtained by the literature. So, a low system component, single power stage, cheap control scheme, and decent efficiency are achieved by the proposed system. Finally, the experimental results present that the proposed system has a maximum efficiency of 91%, with good values of the total harmonic distortion (THD) compared to the results of other authorsThis work was supported in-part by Innovate UK GCRF Energy Catalyst PiCREST project under Grant number 41358, in-part by British Academy GCRF COMPENSE project under Grant GCRFNGR3\154
A study of colourant uses in illuminated Islamic manuscripts from the Qājār period (1789–1925 C.E), early modern Iran
No full textNoThe study was undertaken to explore the widespread use of colourants, raw materials and technology of colour production to illuminate Qur’ān manuscripts in the Qājār period, Iran (1789–1925 C.E.). SEM-EDX and µ-Raman spectroscopy were employed as non-invasive/non-destructive complementary techniques. The SEM-BSE images contribute to distinguishing between organic/inorganic origin of colourants and the EDX to identify gilding composition as well as providing a short-list of potential colourants to be confirmed by µ-Raman spectroscopy as a compound-specific technique. The results show the most identified colourants are mineral-based pigment; these include carbon black, ultramarine, Prussian blue, vermillion, and red lead. Brass, pure gold, and a gold-silver alloy were detected as metallic ink/paint as gilding. We hypothesise the red diacritic in S01 have organic nature with an anthraquinone derivative structure, but we were unable to specifically identify it. We also hypothesise the yellow constituents in S02 might contain saffron and lead-containing compound(s) as a thickening agent and/or chemical drier. Our findings were in agreement with information available in Persian and English bibliographical sources on Iranian painting and illuminated manuscripts of the Qājār period. Further analysis by SR-µFTIR, FORS, SERS and HPLC is required to confirm our assumption and to complete colourant identification
Sediment deposition within rainwater: case study comparison of four different sites in Ikorodu, Nigeria
No full textYesBuilding roofs represents a critical pathway for sediment mixing with rainwater. This study aims to explore the correlation between roof-top deposited sediment matter in the different areas of the Ikorodu Local Government Area in Lagos, Nigeria. The deposition rate on the roof was studied for 34 weeks in total (i.e., 17 weekly analyses in the rainy season and 17 weekly analyses in the dry season). The total deposition was collected by a 10 inch funnel and directed into a 5 L container, which was partially filled with sterilised water. The roof-top deposition in four different areas was inspected and analysed. The four areas were selected based on the levels of sanitation and vege-tation. The experimental results showed that the enumerated total depositions in different areas were higher in the dry season than the rainy season, with the highest deposition occurring in the Harmattan period. The data obtained from this study have evidenced that the contamination from roof-harvested rainwater can mainly be attributed to atmospheric deposition. Another key factor was the hygiene and sanitation of the harvesting areas, including the gutter, pipes and proximity to animal faeces
Fabrication, Characterisation and Optimisation of Biodegradable Scaffolds for Vascular Tissue Engineering Application of PCL and PLGA Electrospun Polymers for Vascular Tissue Engineering
No full textAnnually, about 80,000 people die in the United Kingdom due to myocardial
infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, or from other diseases related to
blood vessels. The current gold standard treatment for replacing the damaged
blood vessel is by autograft procedure, during which the internal mammary
artery (IMA) graft or saphenous vein graft (SVG) are usually employed.
However, some limitations are associated with this type of treatment, such as
lack of donor site and post-surgery problems that could negatively affect the
patient’s health. Therefore, this present work aims to fabricate a synthetic
blood vessel that mimics the natural arteries and to be used as an alternative
method for blood vessel replacement. Polymeric materials intended to be used
for this purpose must possess several characteristics including: (1) Polymers
must be biocompatible; (2) Biodegradable with adequate degradation rate; (3)
Must maintain its structural integrity throughout intended use; (4) Must have
ideal mechanical properties; and (5) Must encourage and enhance the
proliferation of the cells.
The feasibility of using synthetic biodegradable polymers such as poly (ε-
caprolactone) (PCL) and poly (lactide-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) for fabricating
tubular vascular grafts was extensively investigated in this work. Many
fundamental experiments were performed to develop porous tissue-
engineered polymeric membranes for vascular graft purposes through
electrospinning technique to achieve the main aim. Electrospinning was
selected since the scaffolds produced by this method usually resemble
structural morphology similar to the extracellular matrix (ECM). Hence, four
6mm in diameter tubular shape vascular grafts PCL only, PLGA only, coaxial
(core-PCL and shell-PLGA), and bilayer (inner layer-PCL and outer layer-PLGA) was designed and fabricated successfully. The structure and properties
of each scaffold membrane were observed by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM), and these scaffolds were fully characterized by Fourier-transform
infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric
analysis (TGA), water contact angle measurements, mechanical tensile test,
as well as cell culture studies were carried out by seeding human umbilical
vein cells (HUVEC) and human vascular Fibroblast cells (HVF). Moreover, all
polymeric grafts underwent degradation process, and the change in their
morphological structure properties was studied over 12 weeks at room
temperature. All scaffolds were also exposed to a controlled temperature of
37°C for four weeks, in phosphate-buffered saline solution (pH, 7.3).
It was found that all scaffolds displayed exceptional fibre structure and
excellent degradability with adequate steady weight-loss confirming the
suitability of the fabricated scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. The
coaxial and bilayer scaffolds degraded at a much slower (and steadier) rate
than the singular PCL and PLGA tubular scaffolds. Coaxial grafts fabricated
via coaxial needle showed an increase in their fibre diameter and pore size
volume than other membranes, but also showed to have significant tensile
strength, elongation at fracture, and Young’s modulus. To conclude, all
scaffolds have demonstrated to be reliable to adhere and proliferate HUVEC,
and HVF cells, but these cells were attracted to the PLGA membrane more
than other fabricated membranes
An Edge-Based Blockchain-Enabled Framework for Preventing Insider Attacks in Internet of Things (IoT)
No full textThe IoT offers enormous potentials thanks to its Widespread adoption by many industries, individuals, and governments, leading explosive growth and remarkable breakthroughs that have made it a technology with seemingly boundless applications. However, the far-reaching IoT applications cum its characteristic heterogeneity and ubiquity come with a huge price for more security vulnerabilities, making the deployed IoT systems increasingly susceptible to, and prime targets of many different physical and cyber-attacks including insider attacks, thereby growing the overall security risks to the systems.
This research, which focuses on addressing insider attacks on IoT, studies the likelihood of malicious insiders' activities compromising some of the security triad of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) of a supposedly secure IoT system with implemented security mechanisms. To further establish the vulnerability of the IoT systems to the insider attack being investigated in our research, we first produced a research output that emphasized the need for multi-layer security of the overall system and proposed the implementation of security mechanisms on components at all layers of the IoT system to safeguard the system and ensure its CIA. Those conventional measures however do not safeguard against insider attacks, as found by our experimental investigation of a working IoT system prototype.
The outcome of the investigation therefore necessitates our proposed solution to the problem, which leverages the integration of distributed edge computing with decentralized Ethereum blockchain technology to provide countermeasures that preserve the Integrity of the IoT system data and improve effectiveness of the system. We employed the power of Ethereum smart contracts to perform integrity checks on the system data logically and take risk management decisions. We considered the industry use case of Downstream Petroleum sector for application of our solution. The solution was evaluated using datasets from different experimental settings and showed up to 86% accuracy rate.Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS
High Temperature Drives Topoisomerase Mediated Chromosomal Break Repair Pathway Choice.
Get PDFYesCancer-causing mutations often arise from inappropriate DNA repair, yet acute exposure to DNA damage is widely used to treat cancer. The challenge remains in how to specifically induce excessive DNA damage in cancer cells while minimizing the undesirable effects of genomic instability in noncancerous cells. One approach is the acute exposure to hyperthermia, which suppresses DNA repair and synergizes with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. An exception, however, is the protective effect of hyperthermia on topoisomerase targeting therapeutics. The molecular explanation for this conundrum remains unclear. Here, we show that hyperthermia suppresses the level of topoisomerase mediated single- and double-strand breaks induced by exposure to topoisomerase poisons. We further uncover that, hyperthermia suppresses hallmarks of genomic instability induced by topoisomerase targeting therapeutics by inhibiting nuclease activities, thereby channeling repair to error-free pathways driven by tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterases. These findings provide an explanation for the protective effect of hyperthermia from topoisomerase-induced DNA damage and may help to explain the inverse relationship between cancer incidence and temperature. They also pave the way for the use of controlled heat as a therapeutic adjunct to topoisomerase targeting therapeutics